After Cutting Off Love And Emotions, I Was Pestered By The Demon Sect’s Enchantress - Chapter 43

The night was deep, and the interior of the room was shrouded in dimness, save for a few strands of clear moonlight filtering in and leaving traces of light upon the floor.

Zhu Shengxi knit her brows, her hand slowly gripping the hilt of her sword, yet there were no signs of any intruder in the surroundings.

Doubt rose in her heart. She gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips and lit the candle by the table; the room instantly brightened. Zhu Shengxi lifted her gaze slightly and discovered Ning Xu sitting by the window, facing away from her, motionless.

Ordinarily, Ning Xu should have been asleep by this hour. She didn’t know what was wrong today, but the woman sat there without uttering a single word.

Zhu Shengxi did not bother with her, setting her things down for herself. Ning Xu slowly turned around and said in a low voice:

“The weather has been cold lately, I…”

Before she could finish, Zhu Shengxi interrupted coldly: “Yanshu gifted me a piece of Blaze Stone. Keeping it by one’s side can ward off the cold.”

Only then did Ning Xu see the item placed on the table. The Blaze Stone served no other purpose than its exceptional ability to resist cold; it was a rare treasure.

Seeing this, Ning Xu silently shifted her gaze away and tucked the item hidden in her bosom a little deeper.

Having such a treasure to ward off the cold, she certainly would not need an ordinary hand-warmer anymore.

“Zhu is the North Hall Master of the Guiyun Sect, a position of no small status, while Ji Yanshu is the personal disciple of the Kunchen Sect Leader, gentle and kind. The two are well-matched in status and remarkably compatible.”

The words Chongying had relayed during the day echoed in her mind at this moment. Ning Xu lowered her eyes, her heart aching faintly.

They were both members of the righteous path, sharing the common conviction of slaying demons and eliminating evil. If they were to become cultivation partners, everyone would offer their sincere congratulations.

But once Zhu Shengxi became involved with her, it would only invite the condemnation of others.

The Kunchen Sect possessed considerable wealth; Ji Yanshu could easily provide her with the spiritual treasures or elixirs she required.

But all she had brought her was deception and hurt.

Ning Xu remained silent with lowered brows. Zhu Shengxi did not question her abnormal reaction either; after putting her things away, she walked toward the bed.

Suddenly, a soft body pressed against her from behind. A scorching breath hit her ear, and a trembling voice pleaded almost desperately:

“Don’t form a covenant with her, alright?”

Zhu Shengxi immediately pushed her away. This shove was somewhat heavy; Ning Xu stumbled back several steps, staring at her in a daze.

The face of the person before her seemed covered in a layer of thin frost, and cold words were spat out one by one:

“What does it have to do with you, with whom I form a covenant?”

Before Ning Xu could speak, the hand-warmer in her bosom suddenly hit the ground with a “thud.”

She hurriedly picked it up. At this moment, she was standing by the writing desk; as she rose, she happened to glimpse something pressed under a scroll—it was the same brown color as the hand-warmer in her arms.

In a flash of realization, Ning Xu thought of a certain possibility. Before Zhu Shengxi could stop her, she had already pulled out the pressed item.

It was also a hand-warmer, with slight wear and tear at the corners.

Ning Xu looked at Zhu Shengxi, her eyes brightening slightly.

“You… you still kept it?”

Compared to her surprised expression, Zhu Shengxi appeared extremely calm. She said, “It was just pressed under the scrolls; I forgot to throw it away.”

Ning Xu did not believe this explanation. She walked closer with slow steps and said in a trembling voice: “You kept it, which means you still care a little, right? Sheng-sheng, I won’t lie to you anymore. Can you… Forgive me?”

Zhu Shengxi knit her brows slightly and repeated: “I said, I simply forgot to discard it.” After saying this, she snatched the hand-warmer from Ning Xu’s hand. Spiritual energy condensed at her fingertips, and in the next instant, the brown hand-warmer turned to ash.

Ning Xu stared blankly at the floating ashes as the breeze scattered them, as if they had never existed.

Back then, the image of this person smiling gently and carefully treasuring it was still before her eyes, yet now, she had destroyed the item without hesitation right in front of her.

Ning Xu bit her lip hard; conversely, the Blaze Stone Ji Yanshu had gifted her was still placed preciously on the table.

Zhu Shengxi watched her coldly. The warm yellow candlelight reflected on her profile, yet it added not a hint of warmth; instead, it made the chill between her brows even more apparent.

“You took the Emotion-Severing Pill; you won’t feel affection for others. Since you clearly don’t like Ji Yanshu, why do you still want to form a covenant with her?”

Zhu Shengxi said indifferently:

“Whether I like her or not, does it matter?”

These words were like a sharp blade. Ning Xu looked at her fixedly, feeling as though her heart were being twisted by a knife.

Zhu Shengxi wasn’t like this before. She used to say that whom she liked was her own business and she wouldn’t let others dictate it.

She had said she wanted to form a covenant with her; her cultivation partner should clearly have been herself.

Ning Xu’s breathing fluctuated. She couldn’t help but say: “You once said you only wanted to form a covenant with me.”

Zhu Shengxi sneered: “You remember incorrectly. The person I once wanted to form a covenant with was an obscure cultivator named A-Xu, not you, the Left Protector of the Demon Sect, Ning Xu.”

The words of the past were returned one by one. Only now did Ning Xu experience how heartless those words truly were.

She stepped closer and pleaded in a low voice: “Give me a chance to earn your forgiveness, please?”

Zhu Shengxi saw the glistening tears nearly overflowing in her eyes. After a moment of silence, she said: “Ning Xu, I will not like you again.”

Her eyes were painfully sore, but Ning Xu forced herself to reply:

“That’s fine too.”

It is enough that I like you…

Time passed second by second. Ning Xu lowered her head, waiting for her response, as anxiety and unease surged groundlessly in her heart.

If Zhu Shengxi rejected her again on this matter, she truly wouldn’t know what to do.

After a long while, a touch of coldness came from her cheek. The other person’s fingertips lightly tilted her chin up. Ning Xu submissively raised her head slightly, and then, her lips were brushed—neither light nor heavy—by a thumb calloused from swordplay.

Zhu Shengxi looked at her, the emotions in her eyes unclear.

“Then it depends on your sincerity.”

Ning Xu froze. Sincerity? Did she mean it in that way?

The next moment, however, she saw Zhu Shengxi withdraw her hand and sit on the edge of the bed. Ning Xu walked over with downcast eyes, her expression unnatural as she said:

“You have to untie me for it to be convenient to…”

“You were the Left Protector of the Demon Sect before; you must know many of the Demon Sect’s affairs. Speak of them,” Zhu Shengxi interrupted.

These words were too sudden; Ning Xu’s expression stiffened.

The “sincerity” she spoke of referred to confessing the affairs of the Demon Sect?

The heat that hadn’t even had time to rise in her face suddenly chilled. Ning Xu cleared her throat and answered seriously: “Lu Youque has always wanted to release the demon beast Lin Yuan to strengthen the Demon Sect’s power and eliminate the three great immortal sects. She is extremely calculating; she has likely already planned how to deal with the Guiyun Sect by now.”

The tone of her next sentence, however, became somewhat strange: “If you form a covenant with Ji Yanshu, the relationship between the Guiyun Sect and the Kunchen Sect will take another step forward. Lu Youque certainly wouldn’t want to see such a situation. I suspect she will find ways to prevent it.”

Zhu Shengxi nodded, then suddenly asked: “Does Lu Youque know that my blood is special?”

Ning Xu fell silent for a moment and said in a raspy voice: “I’m not sure how she found out. Previously, when she sent me to your side, it was for that purpose.”

After hearing her answer, Zhu Shengxi fell into deep thought and spoke no more. Ning Xu thought she had finished asking and was about to stand up, but a hand pressed her back to her original spot.

“Why did you leave the Demon Sect?”

In the end, the questioning turned back to her. Ning Xu fell silent for a moment, then slowly answered: “I didn’t complete my mission.”

Zhu Shengxi stared at her. Her expression didn’t look like she was lying; could it be that besides those two things, there were other missions?

Ning Xu met her gaze and said softly: “If you want to know, just unfasten my robe.”

Zhu Shengxi thought of the whip wounds she had seen on her back when applying medicine a few days ago and asked: “The wounds on your back?”

Ning Xu smiled faintly and shook her head: “That was just the price for leaving the Demon Sect.”

Zhu Shengxi knit her brows. She had no interest in playing guessing games with her and said coldly: “Don’t play tricks. Speak directly.”

“You will know once you see it,” Ning Xu still insisted.

As the words fell, the Binding Demon Rope around her wrists suddenly loosened. Zhu Shengxi turned her face away slightly without saying a word.

Though nothing was said, Ning Xu somehow understood her meaning.

Ning Xu lowered her eyes slightly. Her hand fell upon the sash at her waist, but she found it difficult to make the next move.

Every response from the person before her was outside her expectations. Asking her to actively unfasten her own clothes was indeed far too embarrassing.

Truly… shooting oneself in the foot.

After several moments of thought, Ning Xu tilted her head up slightly and took a pendant directly from her collar, holding it out before Zhu Shengxi.

Zhu Shengxi glanced at the item in her palm and couldn’t help but freeze.

It was a teardrop-shaped white jade, and the drop of fresh blood within it was extremely conspicuous.

Ning Xu looked at her with gentle eyes and explained softly: “I didn’t want Lu Youque to hurt you. Therefore, I never handed your heart’s blood over to her.”

“Because this mission wasn’t completed, I was driven out of the Demon Sect.”

Zhu Shengxi reached out to touch the jade. Perhaps due to the other woman’s body temperature, the white jade carried a hint of warmth rather than being bone-chillingly cold.

Seeing her looking down in silence, Ning Xu’s voice was earnest: “I told her about the scroll. I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have lied to you. The initial approach was indeed with an objective, but the latter affection for you was real.”

Zhu Shengxi did not respond to these words. She simply opened her palm and said, “Give this jade to me.”

Ning Xu immediately tightened her grip, curling the white jade inside her own hand, and muttered in a small voice: “I’ve worn it for five years.”

Looking at her reaction, Zhu Shengxi paused, no longer insisting, and said calmly: “Rest.” With that, she turned over and lay down on the bed.

Ning Xu looked at her back and prepared to lie on the bed as if nothing were wrong. However, before she could touch the bed, her shoulder was heavily struck by a scabbard.

“Go back to your own bed.”

Ning Xu rubbed her shoulder, a trace of grievance welling up between her brows. She got up and returned to the bedding on the floor. Just as she lay down, the Binding Demon Rope bound her wrists once again.

Tying her up so quickly, it was as if she were terrified she might do something.

Ning Xu felt somewhat dissatisfied, yet she didn’t dare to flare up as she had in the past. She closed her eyes slightly, and suddenly remembering something, she asked:

“Are you still going to form a covenant with Ji Yanshu?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

How could she dispel this idea of hers?

Ning Xu knit her brows slightly and couldn’t help but ask: “You don’t like Ji Yanshu. What is your purpose in forming a covenant with her?”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Her voice returned to its cold indifference, clearly unwilling to reveal anything. Seeing this, Ning Xu stopped questioning and silently gazed at her back.

As soon as she imagined the scene of her walking side-by-side with Ji Yanshu, her heart inevitably felt a dull ache. Ning Xu bit her lip hard, secretly making up her mind.

No matter the reason, she would absolutely not let Zhu Shengxi form a covenant with anyone else.