IVYSCP - Chapter 112

Chapter 112

Her whole body turned cold, as if plunged into an ice pit. Qiu Feng froze in place, a buzzing in her ears so intense she began to feel dazed.

What had she heard? Had Liuli spoken to her? What had she said?

In truth she had heard every word with perfect clarity, but she would rather it had all been a nightmare.

Back then, did you approach me on purpose?

Liuli had asked her that.

Each breath came harder than the last. Qiu Feng clenched her fists and bit her lower lip. Behind her came a faint rustling sound, and step by step, familiar footsteps arrived at her back.

Qiu Feng could not stop herself from wanting to flee this place. The taut string in her mind snapped. She felt as though she might drown right here.

"Ah Qiu."

That soft call made Qiu Feng's lashes tremble.

"So," Yu Liuli's eyes had gone red as she looked at the beloved who stood with her back to her, "I was right. From the very beginning, you approached me on purpose. Was it your idea, or..." Her voice was shaking. "Have you and Xiao Yue known each other all along? Were you using me?"

She suddenly remembered what Ling Qingyue had asked her the night before:

"When Qiu Feng hid in your courtyard, was Xiao Yue there too?"

"If one day you found out your best friend had been tricking you all along, and Qiu Feng was deceiving you too, what would you do?"

At the time she had foolishly assumed Ling Qingyue was using Qiu Feng as a stand-in for Pei Yin, and had not connected the two questions at all.

Now that she thought about it, she had been so slow.

Qiu Feng had clearly been sent to her side by Yue Shouming. When they had discovered Qiu Feng injured and hiding in her courtyard, it was Yue Shouming who had been at her side persuading her to keep the person and treat her wounds.

Qiu Feng, Yue Shouming. The woman she loved most, and her best friend.

Qiu Feng spun around abruptly, wanting to shake her head in denial, but when she met Yu Liuli's disappointed gaze, no words would come.

Watching Qiu Feng start to speak and then stop, her brow tightly furrowed, Yu Liuli suddenly laughed. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Quietly, as though talking to herself, she voiced her confusion: "I have no distinguished lineage, no dazzling natural talent. What could you possibly use me for?"

Qiu Feng's heart clenched as she listened. Her voice choked, she said, "Liuli, don't say that. You are wonderful."

She reached out to touch Yu Liuli, but the other woman deftly evaded her hand.

The outstretched hand hung frozen in midair, looking utterly forlorn.

Qiu Feng stared blankly at Yu Liuli, who was dodging her touch. She could no longer hold back her tears.

Yu Liuli managed a bitter smile and looked at her. "I think I may have guessed part of it. When you were first driven into the Great Wilderness, you adapted so quickly, knew the place so well, as if you had prepared for it long ago. You meant all along to use the Three Thousand Gathering to reveal your half-demon identity, didn't you? Half-human and half-demon is inherently unusual. If someone pushed things along behind the scenes, you wouldn't be executed. You'd be exiled to the Great Wilderness instead. That person was Xiao Yue, wasn't it?"

There truly was nothing useful about her. She did not have many close people around her, but everyone knew she valued loyalty deeply. If Qiu Feng was exposed and someone subtly guided events from the shadows to have her sent to the Great Wilderness, it would both deal with the half-demon and preserve Qiu Feng's life. In her desperation, she would certainly follow that person's lead and protect Qiu Feng.

Only, at that year's Three Thousand Gathering, no one had expected Sword Venerable Lou Wudu to suddenly arrive, expose Qiu Feng's half-human half-demon identity, and draw her sword on the spot to carry out the execution. It was Yu Liuli who had thrown herself in front of Qiu Feng at the risk of her own life. Besides her, there had indeed been one other person present who argued strenuously against it.

That person was Hidden Moon Lord Yue Shouming.

"You looked at me with such astonishment back then." Yu Liuli reached up and touched Qiu Feng's face, her fingertips met by cold wetness. "Did you not expect me to do that? Were you thinking in your heart, how am I so stupid, unable to see that you were using me, even throwing my life away for you? That was the Sword Venerable's sword, after all."

Qiu Feng held her hand and wept so hard she could not get the words out. Shaking her head in denial, she said, "No, I never thought that. Liuli, please stop. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Hearing her apology, Yu Liuli's heart felt as though it had been pierced.

Why apologize? It meant she had guessed right.

The woman she had loved for decades now stood before her, sobbing too hard to catch her breath. Against her will, Yu Liuli's heart still softened. She gently wiped the tears from Qiu Feng's face, even though she could not truly wipe them clean.

"What exactly were you trying to do? You've waited so long. Was it for revenge? Xiao Yue's is. What about you?"

Yu Liuli's tone was almost gentle, yet it only shattered Qiu Feng further. She buried her face in the woman's palm and wailed.

More than such gentle, forgiving questions, Qiu Feng wanted her to be angry, to resent her. Yell at her, hit her, anything.

Yu Liuli's own eyes were stinging with pain. She reached out and held Qiu Feng, stroking her head.

The hatred buried deep in her heart had never faded with time. Instead it had accumulated, fermenting richer and more intense, crushing Qiu Feng until she could scarcely breathe. All these years without Yu Liuli at her side, she would likely have long since lost her humanity and become a demon through and through.

By the time Qiu Feng's sobs slowly quieted, Yu Liuli's shoulder was soaked through.

"I'm sorry..." Qiu Feng clung to her and refused to let go. Her voice still thick with tears, she said, "I did deceive you before, but my feelings for you are real. I truly like you. I love you."

"I know."

Yu Liuli had never once doubted Qiu Feng's feelings for her. After decades together, she could feel whether Qiu Feng loved her or not.

Yu Liuli took Qiu Feng's hand and led her from the courtyard into the room. The two of them sat down close together.

Qiu Feng looked at their clasped hands. Her own hand had long been covered with demonic markings, something people feared and shunned, yet Yu Liuli from the very beginning until now had always held it tightly, never with the slightest hesitation.

She loved Yu Liuli, and Yu Liuli loved her just as deeply.

"The truth is..." Qiu Feng began gently, preparing to confess something, "I never lost my memory. I was born in the Great Wilderness."

When she had sought out Yu Liuli, she had lied about losing her memory, claiming she had stumbled into the Lingxu Immortal Palace by mistake and then hidden in Yu Liuli's courtyard.

Yu Liuli's expression did not change. She listened quietly.

"I was weak as a child. I could not have survived in the Great Wilderness. But I was very fortunate. On the verge of death, I received a drop of blood from the Formless Demon Lord and lived, unexpectedly becoming half-human and half-demon. The Formless Demon Lord's original intent was to refine me into a Blood Demon to serve her, but after I turned half-demon I kept my human form and showed no demonic traits. Even my demonic qi was pitifully weak. The Formless Demon Lord tossed me to a Blood Demon. I thought I was going to die, but that Blood Demon did not eat me."

Qiu Feng reminisced, a faint smile on her lips. "She raised me, found food for me, and would not let other demons near me. Back then I could not yet speak, but in my heart I secretly called her Mother, over and over."

"Immortals and demons warred endlessly. Mother, as one of the Twelve Blood Demons, was a great general under the Demon Lord. She had to follow orders and fight the immortal sects. Once, she went out on the Demon Lord's command, and a long time passed without her return. I heard the demons say she had died. I didn't believe it, so I secretly ran away. I had no idea where Mother was, so I could only head in the direction she had left. I walked for so long, so far. On the road I had to hide from people, afraid they would discover I was a little demon. I had to hide from yao beasts too, because I could not defeat them and feared they would eat me."

"I found Mother. She was not dead. She was being held captive by someone. I was furious and wanted to rescue Mother, and then I was captured too."

At this, Qiu Feng let out a soft laugh. She looked at Yu Liuli and said, "See how wicked this person was."

Yu Liuli's brow furrowed lightly. She listened to Qiu Feng call that person wicked, yet Qiu Feng's eyes were unmistakably full of nostalgia.

Qiu Feng lowered her gaze and went on. "But she was also so good. She held us captive, said she wanted to study us. Though she was fierce, she did not treat demons the way other cultivators did, beating or killing them on sight. She even gave me things to eat, taught me to speak, taught me to write. She said she could find a way to turn me completely human."

"We got along very well, but to the immortal sects, this was intolerable. She stopped wanting me and Mother. She drove us away, said many cruel things, but I saw her cry."

Yu Liuli's eyes stirred faintly, as though she had realized something. She could not help asking, "Was this person you're talking about the Medicine King's disciple?"

There had indeed been a matter that caused a great uproar back then. A disciple of the Medicine King had associated closely with the demon race and had been expelled by the Medicine King.

Qiu Feng took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. It was her."

"Then... what happened after that?"

"After we were driven away, Mother originally planned to take me back to the Great Wilderness, to find some remote place and stay out of the conflict between the demon race and the immortal realm. But on the way, we heard news of the immortal... She had asked me and Mother to call her immortal. When we heard the immortal had been expelled from her sect and was injured, and that many immortal sects were shunning her, Mother grew anxious and turned back with me to find her." Qiu Feng's grip tightened, the bones of her fingers audibly cracking.

Yu Liuli noticed her tone had suddenly turned dark and ominous. She placed her own hand over Qiu Feng's and patted it twice, gently.

"A person found us. She said she knew where the immortal was. She was holding the immortal's jade token, so Mother believed her. That person led us to the Liuyun Immortal Sect. She alone slaughtered every last member of the Liuyun Immortal Sect. Then, and then..."

As Qiu Feng spoke, the demonic markings on her face and hands began to writhe and spread with her surging emotions, and a red gleam rose in her eyes.

"She killed Mother! And she framed the demon race for the massacre!"

"Lou Wudu! A blood debt of hatred that can never be shared under the same sky!"

Yu Liuli's breathing hitched. Ling Qingyue had told her about this not long ago, but she could never have imagined that it was connected to Qiu Feng as well.

So then, Qiu Feng was doing it for her mother, and Yue Shouming for her sister.

Heart aching, Yu Liuli held Qiu Feng. These were things Qiu Feng had kept bottled up in her heart alone for so long, never letting them spill out. How much pain she must have felt, remembering them in the quiet of the night.

Yu Liuli then recalled how Qiu Feng would often drink herself drunk. She was a good drunk. When intoxicated she never moved around or spoke nonsense. She would just sit there, motionless, tears streaming down. Yu Liuli had teased Qiu Feng about it several times because of that. Now she realized Qiu Feng had been using the drunkenness to vent the anguish and longing locked inside her.

"Then why did you still come to the Great Wilderness?"

The Great Wilderness was easy to enter but hard to leave. How could she take revenge from here?

Qiu Feng fell silent.

Yu Liuli released her embrace and pulled back a little. She saw the torment in Qiu Feng's eyes.

Seeing Qiu Feng would not speak, Yu Liuli simply asked about another matter.

"What about Qingyue, then? Was her resurrection part of your plan too? Were you using her as well?"

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