IVYSCP - Chapter 68
Chapter 68
After obtaining Bai Ze's Tear, the demonization of those four Shangtianqiong disciples still troubled her, and she returned uneasily to the place where she had killed Cui Heng.
She worried Cui Heng might have demonized as well, which would be troublesome.
"Was it really because of me?" Ling Qingyue still couldn't believe it.
She would have to be more careful from now on.
Pei Yin was still somewhat distracted and heard her speaking but not what she said.
"Hm?"
Ling Qingyue stopped, pulling her to a halt as well. The two landed in the forest. Pei Yin was about to ask what was wrong when Ling Qingyue suddenly drew close. She stepped back, her back pressing against a tree trunk.
They were nearly the same height now, Ling Qingyue slightly taller.
Ling Qingyue looked down at her and suddenly asked, "Are you worried I'll also end up like what just happened—"
Her lips were covered. Pei Yin looked at her with solemn seriousness. "Don't say it. You won't."
Ling Qingyue's brows and eyes curved into a smile, her voice muffled in Pei Yin's palm. "Then if you say I won't, why are you still unhappy?"
Pei Yin pressed her lips together. "I'm not unhappy."
"Still pretending." Ling Qingyue huffed. "I should have let you see the look on your face just now. Like someone owed you half their life."
Pei Yin's expression eased slightly at that, but her features remained cool and clear, showing no trace of tenderness.
Seeing this, Ling Qingyue pulled her hand down and leaned in to kiss the corner of her lips, warm breath falling against her mouth. "Stop thinking about it. Aren't you by my side? Would you ever let anything happen to me?"
Pei Yin answered without hesitation. "No."
"There you have it." Ling Qingyue tapped the tip of her nose against hers, sighing. "How old is the Immortal Venerable, and yet she still needs me to coax her? Or is it that when the avatar was made a little smaller, the divine sense shrank along with it?"
Pei Yin turned her head sharply away, looking elsewhere.
Ling Qingyue laughed and stepped back.
When they arrived at the place where Cui Heng had died, Ling Qingyue saw only traces of blood but no corpse.
Someone else was nearby. Ling Qingyue and Pei Yin exchanged a glance, then silently crept closer, discovering it was Bai Cha.
Bai Cha's eyes were red and swollen. She seemed to be searching for something.
Ling Qingyue figured she was looking for Cui Heng's corpse.
Leaving Pei Yin waiting where she was, Ling Qingyue walked over. Bai Cha sensed someone approaching and whirled around, her initial wariness immediately relaxing.
Ling Qingyue found it a little strange. She recognized her?
"What are you looking for?" Ling Qingyue asked directly.
Bai Cha's lips trembled a little. "Cui Heng's corpse."
As expected.
"Didn't find it? How long have you been searching?"
"Half a shichen." Bai Cha explained, "After I settled those fellow disciples, I came looking. I still haven't seen it."
Ling Qingyue estimated the time, her gaze lowering in thought.
Her sword had pierced Cui Heng's heart meridian, and Bai Cha had witnessed her killing Cui Heng. Bai Cha's cultivation was higher than hers. If Cui Heng weren't dead, Bai Cha would have come looking for Cui Heng first.
Cui Heng was dead, yet the body was gone. Could her corpse have demonized too?
Beside her, Bai Cha glanced at her several times in succession, finally unable to hold back. "You—you look a lot like someone I know."
Ling Qingyue's brow jumped. She shot Bai Cha an icy look. "You're mistaken."
With that, she turned and left, not seeing the wounded, desolate look in Bai Cha's eyes.
Ling Qingyue was, of course, angry with her. Among all her many junior sisters, her impression of Bai Cha ran deep: restrained and well-behaved, always so cautious, focused and earnest in sword practice. Such an obedient, dutiful junior sister, yet now she was following Cui Heng and doing her work. Utterly foolish and stupid!
Back at Pei Yin's side, Ling Qingyue, her expression grim, shared her thoughts.
"More than demonization, I think she didn't die so easily," Pei Yin said softly. "As the Sword Venerable's chief disciple, she would certainly carry something to preserve her life. If she demonized after death, her body should have appeared at the Bone Burial Ground as well."
Ling Qingyue gritted her teeth. "What a stubborn life. A pierced heart meridian and still she doesn't die."
Pei Yin's eyes darkened. "If one death isn't enough, then kill her twice, three times, a hundred times, a thousand times."
Ling Qingyue suddenly laughed.
Pei Yin looked at her. "What are you laughing at?"
Ling Qingyue spoke softly, a smile in her voice. "The Immortal Venerable says things that make her sound even more like a demon lord than I do."
Pei Yin's lips curved faintly. "Aren't you half a demon lord yourself? Besides, when did I ever say I was a good person?"
She had never been kind or compassionate. On the contrary, she was selfish and self-serving.
When they returned to the boundary she had set for Lu Yao and the others, Ling Qingyue stood there frozen for a long moment.
Seven or eight Piaomiao Sect disciples lay sprawled everywhere. If not for the smiles on their faces, Ling Qingyue would have thought something terrible had happened to them.
Turning her gaze, she saw the Dream-Eating Tapir had also reverted to her yao form, lying on her back with all four legs in the air. Lu Yao was splayed out carelessly on her belly, sleeping soundly.
Ling Qingyue: "…"
The people trapped in the distance had long since passed out, piled together motionless.
Crossing the formation barrier, she scooped Lu Yao up and set her aside, then patted the Dream-Eating Tapir's belly.
"Wake up, wake up."
The Dream-Eating Tapir was displeased. She pushed Ling Qingyue's hand away with a paw and grumbled a string of beast language Ling Qingyue couldn't understand.
"Gulu gulu…"
Full. Don't disturb my sleep.
Ling Qingyue: "…"
One after another, they all slept like the dead, and Ling Qingyue couldn't wake them. She had no choice but to find an open spot and sit shoulder to shoulder with Pei Yin.
For some reason, sitting beside her, she simply couldn't keep still. She moved her arms, moved her hands, then rested her head on Pei Yin's shoulder and reached for her hand to look at it.
"How do you do it? Those hand seals are so complicated, and you perform them so quickly."
Pei Yin, seeing her curiosity, took both her hands and brought them in front of her. "Do you want to learn? I'll teach you."
With that movement, Ling Qingyue slid from her shoulder into her arms, half-held, half-embraced as Pei Yin positioned her fingers.
"Like this, and then…"
Pei Yin moved very slowly, but Ling Qingyue still found it dizzying. In the end, she closed her eyes and flopped onto Pei Yin's lap. "Not learning anymore."
Pei Yin chuckled softly and pinched her cheek. "You remember so many sword moves and sword forms. How can you not remember this?"
"If I can't remember, I can't remember." Ling Qingyue wrapped her arms around Pei Yin's waist, her face pressed against her abdomen, feeling the rise and fall of each breath and the faint tremors of quiet laughter.
When Lu Yao groggily woke, this was the scene that greeted her, scaring her so much she immediately shut her eyes and went back to sleep.
Inside the main chamber of the Shangtianqiong skyship—
Lou Wudu looked down at the person drenched in blood. With an impatient click of her tongue, she raised a hand and cleared away the filth for her.
"Why did you summon me back?!" Cui Heng raised her head to look at her, her displeasure on full display.
Surprise flickered in Lou Wudu's eyes. Deep inside, she felt a thick, intense resentment.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. She rose and walked over to stand before Cui Heng, her voice cold. "How dare you speak to me like that? Have you forgotten how you came to be? Or do you truly wish to die?"
Cui Heng's expression froze, and then she laughed a couple of times. "Of course I haven't forgotten. I misspoke. Whether I die or not is of no consequence to you. After all… if one of me dies, there will be a second Cui Heng to do your bidding."
Lou Wudu frowned, sensing something wrong. She lifted a hand and gripped Cui Heng's face, forcing her head up. "What's going on with you?"
Cui Heng suppressed the agitation inside her and met her gaze directly. "Nothing."
Lou Wudu sneered and released her. "It had better be."
Cui Heng looked down at the sword wound over her heart, her lips curving. "What do you have to worry about? After all, I will never betray you."
Lou Wudu sat back down, pressing her temple. "Mm."
Cui Heng rose and sat to one side, asking about another matter. "Have you chosen anyone yet?"
Lou Wudu glanced at her. Her jaw shifted slightly, a faint ache coming from inside her cheek. She spoke quietly. "In a few days, Shangtianqiong will take in new disciples. We'll see if there's anyone suitable."
Cui Heng nodded. "Fine."
"Also, when we return this time, you are to stay out of sight for two months. You still have punishment to endure."
"Fine."
Silence fell within the main chamber. In the side chamber next to it sat Yue Shouming.
A faint smile lingered at her lips. She raised a hand in the gesture of placing a chess piece and parted her lips, silently mouthing a word: Kill.
Su Lan stood quietly behind her, watching. In her calm, still eyes, a sorrowful emotion slowly surfaced, but she quickly suppressed it and forced it back down.
After Yue Shouming placed her piece, she faced the pitch-black world in silence. She raised a hand to touch her own eyes, her thoughts pulling her back a hundred years—
"Ah Yue! Have you lost your mind?! You'll die if you do this!"
"I don't care! I must know the truth of how my sister died! Even if I must suffer Heavenly Punishment for it, I will do it!"
"Ah Yue!"
"Hidden Moon Lord."
The woman's desperate cries in her memory overlapped with the present. Yue Shouming came back to herself and responded softly, "What is it, Aunt Su?"
Su Lan glanced toward the door and said quietly, "The Sword Venerable is here."
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