After Cutting Off Love And Emotions, I Was Pestered By The Demon Sect’s Enchantress - Chapter 3

The firewood crackled and burned, its faint light adding a touch of warmth to the cold night.

Zhu Shengxi sat cross-legged in meditation. Her cold poison had just been suppressed, but she still needed to clear her meridians one by one.

The spiritual power moved at a snail’s pace through the sluggish meridians. Zhu Shengxi pursed her lips tightly, suppressing the urge to groan in pain within her throat, remaining silent. Only her erratic breathing betrayed the extreme agony she was suffering at this moment.

A-Xu lay on the stone bed, tossing and turning. She had always been a good sleeper, the type who fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, but tonight, for some reason, she couldn’t sleep at all.

As soon as she closed her eyes, the sound of that person’s disordered breathing in the corner seemed to be right in her ear.

After counting several hundred sheep and reviewing everything she had ever learned in her life, A-Xu rolled out of bed and walked toward the corner.

“Healing like this is too slow. Besides, you’re making too much noise for me to sleep.”

Zhu Shengxi opened her eyes and looked at her.

She understood what A-Xu meant. Practitioners of cultivation possessed excellent hearing and sight; she could swallow her cries of pain, but she had no way to steady her breathing.

“Apologies,” came a low voice. A-Xu’s gaze fell upon her lips, which were pressed white, and her beautiful brows furrowed slightly.

“I practice a fire-attribute cultivation method; it can restrain your cold poison,” A-Xu paused, then changed the subject. “But it requires you to open your spiritual consciousness to me. Only then can I…”

“No need,” Zhu Shengxi refused coldly.

Spiritual consciousness was extremely important to a cultivator. If one opened their consciousness to another, all of their memories and learned cultivation techniques would be laid bare. Furthermore, if the other person tampered even slightly with the consciousness, the victim could range from being permanently unable to cultivate to losing their life.

Therefore, one only opened their spiritual consciousness to those they trusted.

A-Xu had guessed she wouldn’t agree and added, “There is another way. Just like back then, holding me tightly works too.”

Zhu Shengxi remained silent for a few seconds before refusing again: “No need. If you find it too noisy, I can go outside the cave to regulate my breath.” As she spoke, she stood up, actually intending to walk out of the cave.

A-Xu’s expression chilled for a moment. She stepped forward quickly and grabbed her wrist. “The wind outside is biting and full of danger. Have you gone mad?”

“Let go.” Zhu Shengxi tried to pull her hand away, but was led by her to sit down on the stone bed.

A-Xu didn’t say a word. Her grip on the hand loosened slightly, and then a wave of warm spiritual power was injected into Zhu Shengxi’s meridians, slowly assisting her in breaking through the stagnation.

Zhu Shengxi glanced at her and then began to regulate her breathing.

After a night had passed.

“Thank you for last night,” Zhu Shengxi walked to A-Xu’s side and said to her.

Unexpectedly, A-Xu’s expression was calm as she simply nodded. “Mm.”

“You…” Zhu Shengxi peered at her complexion, which didn’t look great, wanting to ask a few questions, but A-Xu walked straight out of the cave.

“How do we get out?”

Zhu Shengxi pondered for a moment and said, “In five more days, those within the realm can leave the Heaven’s Dry Realm. We just need to find the teleportation array to get out.”

A-Xu walked ahead of her, her expression unreadable.

“The cold poison will become more severe over time. Have you thought about how to handle the next onset?”

The change in topic was so fast that Zhu Shengxi was stunned. She then replied indifferently, “I’ll just endure it, and it will pass.”

A-Xu suddenly stopped in her tracks. “Have you endured it like this all these years?”

The tone of the next sentence was strangely pointed. “Did those ‘good’ senior sisters and fellow disciples of yours never think of a solution?”

This cold poison was related to a curse, which Zhu Shengxi had never told anyone.

“They don’t know.”

Hearing this, A-Xu was silent for a moment, then sneered, “You think you can hold on by yourself? Don’t be naive.”

She turned around and looked fixedly at Zhu Shengxi.

“Once the cold poison spreads throughout the entire body, your cultivation will dissipate, and you will become a useless person. And right now, the cold poison has already reached your heart.”

Zhu Shengxi’s expression remained calm, her lips pressed together in silence.

Seeing her like this, A-Xu huffed, “Good advice is lost on the ghost determined to die.”

Zhu Shengxi looked around, deliberately trying to move past the previous topic. She asked, “Which direction is this compared to where the wooden box was placed?”

A-Xu replied casually, “I found this place at random.” Meaning she didn’t know the orientation.

Zhu Shengxi took out a small circular disc from her storage bag. After injecting spiritual power into it, the character for “North” glowed with a faint light.

A-Xu glanced at it. “So it means we head North?”

Just as the words left her mouth, the character for “West” on the disc also lit up, and then one after another, all four directions glowed.

Seeing this, A-Xu curled her lips. “This magic treasure of yours isn’t very useful.”

Zhu Shengxi frowned slightly. “There must be special restrictions within Heaven’s Dry Realm. The orientation changes with the restrictions, making it difficult to determine.”

“If you ask me, just keep walking forward,” A-Xu pulled out the jade flute tucked at her waist and twirled it.

Zhu Shengxi replied helplessly, “That is the only way.”

The two walked one after the other, maintaining a distance of about five steps between them.

The forest branches were tangled and messy. A-Xu walked in front, twirling her jade flute lightly; the branches blocking the path snapped one after another.

Zhu Shengxi looked at the jade flute a few more times. She had noticed from the start that when no spiritual power was injected, the flute was a transparent light green. When spiritual power was added for use as a weapon, the color deepened, turning into dark green.

It was likely an extraordinary magic treasure.

A quarter of an hour later, A-Xu suddenly stopped. She looked at Zhu Shengxi. “Do you feel it? Something seems wrong.”

Zhu Shengxi nodded slightly. “Yes. These obstructing branches are becoming more numerous. It seems they don’t want us to continue forward.”

A-Xu snorted. “No matter what is trying to stop us, if it won’t let me go forward, I insist on going.”

As soon as she spoke, the ground suddenly shook. A-Xu’s face changed. “No way, is it really this petty?”

While the ground shook violently, it suddenly cracked open, the fissure growing larger and larger. In an instant, the broken trees nearby fell into the chasm.

Zhu Shengxi looked inside; the falling giant trees gradually vanished into the darkness until they were completely invisible.

Her expression was grave. “It’s bottomless.”

A-Xu had consumed spiritual power earlier to clear the path, and her face now looked somewhat pale. She frowned, and just as she was about to say something, a vibration even stronger than the previous one hit them.

Furthermore, the ground on one side of the crack flipped up, as if trying to dump everything into the fissure. A-Xu’s body tilted, and she plunged into the darkness.

“Chenque!” Zhu Shengxi formed a seal with one hand, controlling the Chenque Sword to fly into the crack.

A-Xu was falling very fast. She tried to jam the jade flute into the rock wall to slow her descent, but the wall was exceptionally smooth and hard; even the jade flute couldn’t pierce it, and there were no protruding rocks to grab.

A-Xu was anxious. Suddenly, a strong hand wrapped around her waist, and then she saw dots of pale blue fluorescence.

Zhu Shengxi’s fingertips glowed slightly as the blue light flickered, reflecting her jade-like face.

“Stand firm,” Zhu Shengxi withdrew her hand, focusing all her strength on controlling the Chenque Sword.

Upon entering the crack, she felt her spiritual power being affected. It seemed an unseen force was interfering. Now, she could only try her best to maintain control so her spiritual power wouldn’t spiral out of order.

“Why did you save me?”

The wind whistled loudly. A-Xu’s words were swallowed by the gale. Zhu Shengxi took a moment to look at her, but only saw her lips moving; she heard nothing.

“What?”

A-Xu lowered her eyes. “Nothing.”

Zhu Shengxi controlled the sword, intending to fly out of the crack, but the wind inside was rapid and sweeping downward. Trying to get out now was like swimming against a powerful current—nearly impossible.

She quickly explained the current situation to A-Xu. A-Xu thought for a moment and said, “How about we follow the wind and go deeper into the crack?”

Zhu Shengxi frowned slightly. The depths of the fissure were pitch black and might hold hidden dangers, but currently, this was the only path left.

The gale howled, and with her spiritual power restricted, she couldn’t hold out for much longer. If she insisted on going against the current, she feared her spiritual power would be exhausted before they ever got out.

Zhu Shengxi nodded and controlled the Chenque Sword to fly toward the depths of the crack.

The further down they went, the stronger the wind became, making their faces sting. A-Xu frowned slightly and raised her hand, wanting to use her sleeve to block it, but she saw Zhu Shengxi form a seal. A protective barrier enveloped them both, isolating the strong winds.

A-Xu: “Your spiritual power is running low.”

“I know,” Zhu Shengxi’s tone was calm.

A-Xu knit her brows. “Then why are you wasting spiritual power on a barrier? I’m not afraid of the wind.”

Zhu Shengxi: “It’s not for you. The wind is making my eyes hurt.”

Hearing this, A-Xu was choked for words. After a long while, she said coldly, “Then take away half the barrier; don’t worry about me.”

A-Xu wanted to say more, but suddenly heard the cold voice of the person beside her: “Shut up.”

A-Xu pursed her lips and stopped talking.

They flew downward for half a day without seeing the bottom. Having consumed too much spiritual power, Zhu Shengxi’s complexion wasn’t looking good either.

At that moment, a hand rested on her left shoulder.

Zhu Shengxi’s body jolted, and she snapped coldly:

“What are you doing?”

“Transferring some spiritual power to you,” A-Xu’s voice came from behind.

Zhu Shengxi froze for a moment, falling silent. A-Xu took in the change in her expression and laughed softly. “What’s the matter? Did you think I was going to do something to you?”

The two were very close at this moment. A-Xu’s light laughter carried through the wind into Zhu Shengxi’s ears. Zhu Shengxi denied it coldly: “No.”

A-Xu curled her lips, and her hand on the shoulder tightened slightly.

A surge of hot spiritual power poured into Zhu Shengxi’s spiritual sea. She focused her energy and sped up the sword’s descent.

In the darkness, a massive object flickered in and out of sight.

“Daoist Zhu, look,” A-Xu whispered a reminder.

Zhu Shengxi followed her voice to look, but it was too dim to see clearly.

In the next instant, the massive object charged toward them at high speed. Zhu Shengxi’s heart went cold; she hurriedly controlled the sword to dodge.

As the distance closed, a giant, dark-red eye suddenly appeared before them. Then, accompanied by a sonic boom, a powerful force shattered their protective barrier.

Zhu Shengxi turned around, pulling A-Xu into a light embrace, and bore the impact of the strike herself.

The two were like kites with broken strings, falling rapidly into the depths. A bit of warm, wet liquid touched her neck; A-Xu’s heart trembled, and she called out in a low voice:

“Zhu Shengxi…”

In the bottomless crack, surrounded by boundless darkness, A-Xu closed her eyes. On her originally fair forehead, a blood-red mark appeared, flickering with a strange, demonic light.