After a Fake Death, the Emotionless Dao Senior Sister Became Obsessed - Chapter 14

After a few hours, the play ended, the stage was taken down, and the spring performance dispersed.

The surroundings were completely packed. The crowd below the stage was like hollow shells, like string puppets, their expressions stiff. The atmosphere was strangely orderly as they left.

Si Jing stood in front of the stage for a long time, her hand resting on the sword hilt, silent and still.

She had arrived a little late.

The demon who created the Yingchuan City illusion once said he would bring the remnant soul named Li Niang to listen to the play. Unfortunately, the other party was naturally cautious, and Si Jing only managed to capture a faint wisp of demonic energy.

It was like a flaw, deliberately set to lure her here.

Suddenly noticing something, she bent down and picked up a round pearl.

It was still stained with candied fruit and had shallow teeth marks from a small fish’s bite.

Si Jing still hadn’t determined Chu Zhao’s connection to this matter.

The little red fish was innocent and naive, but if she was involved with a demon, and considering the desolate mountain where she originated from in the Gaze Mirror, it was hard to guarantee she wouldn’t stray onto the wrong path.

She seemed to be utterly helpless against this fish demon.

After all, she had slain countless similar demons and extracted so many demon cores before.

Si Jing’s fingers rubbed the pearl; the touch was slightly cool, like a smooth, warm scale.

Putting the pearl away, and not wanting to delay, she continued deeper into the city following the source of the demonic energy.

Bypassing the markets and bazaars, she arrived at a courtyard and pavilion belonging to a prominent family in Yingchuan City.

The demonic energy here was particularly strong. The guards outside the manor and the guests attending the banquet had vacant eyes. Their bodies had been completely eaten away by the demonic energy; a slight touch would make them crumble into dust.

Si Jing slowly walked in.

The sound of the phoenix flute was broken, the neon robes had sung their last, but the strings and woodwinds continuously filled the air. A grand banquet was being held in the courtyard to entertain guests, alongside some sect cultivators whose origins she was unfamiliar with.

They seemed to be recruiting new disciples for their respective sects.

However, at this moment, they frowned and wrung their hands, looking at a certain figure with a palpable sense of disdain.

Si Jing’s gaze slightly focused.

That figure was Huan Liu, who had been missing from the Yunshui Peak back mountain for several days.

His clothes were torn, and a wisp of demonic energy lingered between his brows. He desperately clung to the sect cultivators like a drowning man grasping a straw, pleading with them to take him in as a disciple.

Before long, his expression turned ferocious, and he began questioning why his aptitude was not good enough to enter a sect.

Si Jing stepped forward, her fingertip lightly tracing his brow.

The cool spiritual energy made Huan Liu’s shoulder tremble, and his eyes gradually cleared.

“Senior Sister, Senior Sister… save me!” Catching sight of the calm, cold-eyed woman before him, he desperately clutched her clothes.

But Huan Liu seemed to be already crazed and delirious. He couldn’t sustain clarity for a moment and quickly lost himself again, enveloped by the terrifying nightmare-like scenery that only he could see.

“I, I just wanted to enter Kunlun Xu… it wasn’t me who harmed her, it was her, she fell into the water and drowned herself!” Huan Liu spoke incoherently, waving his hands and backing away in fear.

“I, I will never look for beautiful corals again! Father, Father, hurry up and find new brides for the Water Demon Lord…”

Before she could question him further, he fainted, scared witless by his own rambling.

Si Jing crouched down, her fingertip touching his forehead.

The demonic energy had already invaded his heart meridian. He would likely be half-wit even if he woke up.

She had a very faint impression of Huan Liu, this newly inducted disciple. She had only overheard other disciples whispering about him, saying he came from a cultivation family in Yingchuan City but was rejected by prominent mysterious sects like Kunlun Xu due to his insufficient talent.

Later, he somehow learned about the lush, green Yunshui Peak and barely managed to climb the eight hundred and thirty-four steps of the mountain gate before being accepted.

Regarding this, she still remembered what her master, Su Xue, had said that day.

“Oh, our Yunshui Peak is a loose organization. Although he is a bit of a useless fellow, he is a promising young seed who is willing to pay spirit stones—ahem—willing to study diligently.”

“Yingzhi, put him in the fifty-year Foundation Establishment crash course. If he can’t achieve Foundation Establishment in fifty years, just give him a Marrow Cleansing Pill and send him on his way.”

“Master, what is the Foundation Establishment crash course?” Si Jing remembered being utterly bewildered at the time.

There were no ranks within the sect, and she treated all her junior disciples equally.

The woman in the dark blue Taoist robe was lounging on a carefully spread soft, warm couch, holding a jar of peach wine and occasionally swaying it.

The person who always acted as a hands-off manager was stumped by her question, having only casually made up the phrase.

“Wait a moment, let me divine a reading before I answer you,” Su Xue waved her hand guiltily, letting out a burp from the wine.

She rummaged and produced a fortune stick holder from somewhere. With a flick of her wrist, a bamboo stick fell out.

She put the stick in front of her, squinting her intoxicated eyes at it for a long while, then clucking, “This unlucky child, I should have kicked him down when he was climbing the mountain stairs.”

“He won’t live much longer anyway, just ignore him and let him grow freely.”

Si Jing followed Su Xue’s words and did not interfere with Huan Liu afterward.

She didn’t understand the specific meaning of a “crash course,” and simply treated his cultivation with the same requirements as all the other disciples.

However, Huan Liu was inherently lazy and unwilling to be grounded. He always sought shortcuts and ways to exploit loopholes.

Consequently, when he trespassed into the back mountain and vanished without a trace overnight, most of the sect disciples were not surprised.

Now, seeing Huan Liu’s unconscious state, Si Jing lowered her lashes.

No ripples formed in her heart. Just like with the other disciples of Yunshui Peak, she felt everyone was essentially the same.

Most would remain at the Qi Cultivation or Foundation Establishment stages, living short lives, seeing all the myriad forms of the world, only to eventually part ways with her one day.

Si Jing’s palm emitted cool, faint spiritual energy, protecting Huan Liu’s heart meridian before she rose and walked into the vast courtyard.

The one hosting this banquet was an old man seated in the middle, whose appearance somewhat resembled Huan Liu—likely Huan Liu’s father.

As she got closer, she could faintly hear him mumbling, repeating a few sentences: “Water Demon Lord, please bless my son Huan Liu’s cultivation to advance thousands of miles…”

“Your new wife, I have drowned and sent her to you.”

Si Jing’s expression turned cold, recalling how when she first arrived in Yingchuan City, she saved a woman from a sedan chair, only to find absolutely nothing in the pond beneath.

The rumor of the Water Demon was merely a fabrication, perhaps… it was only to satisfy the selfish desires of the family before her.

Her gaze swept across the old man, and she spoke in a low voice: “Where is it.”

“Is it still the pond in the depths of the forest, west of Yingchuan City?”

The old man ignored her, his expression vacant. A salty, fishy smell emanated from his mouth and nostrils as he continued to repeat the same phrases.

Si Jing’s face showed no emotion. She reached out to check his vital signs.

But before she could touch him, the man’s body suddenly exploded, and foul black water flowed all over the floor.

Simultaneously, the people possessed by demonic energy on both sides of the banquet stiffly turned their heads, silently staring at her.

The daytime anomalies in the city began to shift. The cloud formations became strange, and the sky darkened, as if a sudden downpour was imminent.

The black water spread from the main seat of the banquet. As it reached each guest, that person’s body exploded like the old man’s, ultimately transforming into distorted, hideous demon creatures resembling aquatic dragons.

Si Jing landed at the entrance of the courtyard. She raised her hand, and the simple sword on her back rang as it was drawn from the sheath.

She held the sword across her body, partially concealing her face. After closing her eyes, all her aura was completely withdrawn. Amidst the surging demonic energy, she looked like a fragile snow feather, swaying precariously, about to be torn apart.

The demon creatures surged toward her. The woman in snow-white robes paid them no heed. Her light lips moved slightly, and her sleeves fluttered without any wind.

The fluctuations of the entire illusion centered around her froze for a moment. Immediately afterward, azure spiritual energy swept through the entire courtyard with destructive force.

The hundreds of demon creatures in the courtyard were instantly reduced to iron-dark ice mist.

The sky completely darkened, and cold raindrops began to fall. The moment they touched Si Jing’s hair, they froze, condensing into colorless snow pellets.

Si Jing’s expression was aloof and cold. She did not linger, turning to leave in the light snow.

With the core of the illusion formation removed, the scene of revelry instantly shattered. What met her eyes were dilapidated pavilions and towers, extremely decaying and overgrown with weeds.

This was the true appearance of Yingchuan City.

She heard the demon’s laughter again ringing in her ears, shrill and sharp, mixed with a hint of mockery, “Giggle.”

“Does a bad seed who has committed endless evil deeds deserve to join a sect, and deserve for an astonishingly talented Senior Sister like you to clean up his mess?”

“I didn’t come only for Huan Liu,” Si Jing said.

“Then… I guess you have someone else in mind?” The demon’s voice was light and melodious.

The sound of mournful blowing and stringed instruments suddenly spread throughout the city, the pitch rising and falling, painfully jarring.

A hazy white mist rose in the city. Four people walked out of the mist, each carrying a wooden pole on their shoulders, supporting a small, red satin bridal sedan chair.

The sedan chair was exquisitely beautiful, with dark red silk fabric trailing on the ground, but against the backdrop of the bleak and desolate city, it looked utterly eerie.

The red silk curtain of the sedan chair was suddenly lifted by a wisp of cold, sinister demonic energy.

A delicate, beautiful young girl was leaning inside. Her eyes were tightly shut, and her raven-black hair fell across her chest. She wore an extremely elaborately embroidered wedding gown. The phoenix crown rustled, and the tips of her new shoes were adorned with pearls.

She was still holding her favorite meat date rice cake, her pink lips opening and closing as she mumbled in her sleep.

Shan Hu appeared out of thin air behind Si Jing, leaning close to the snow-robed woman whose face was like frost.

“Is it her?”

She spoke softly, and with a hook of her finger, the pearl Si Jing had tucked into her clothes fell out.

It rolled obliquely onto the ground.

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