After Cutting Off Love And Emotions, I Was Pestered By The Demon Sect’s Enchantress - Chapter 9

The Suluo Clan (Part V)

“Look, she can balance both ice and fire element techniques! That’s incredible.”

“Aren’t those two elements completely incompatible?”

“How do you do it? Teach us!”

Several children, dressed in the finery of noble clans, surrounded a giant tree, looking up with curiosity at the young girl perched upon its branches.

The girl, clad only in simple cloth garments, leaped down from the tree and offered a faint smile. “Alright, I’ll teach you.”

She raised her hands, effortlessly channeling the two opposing techniques. A bright cluster of flames rose from one palm, while a thin layer of frost formed in the other. Instantly, she won the startled admiration of those around her.

This was the first time she had ever been surrounded by gazes of envy and approval.

With a smile lighting up her face, the girl withdrew her spiritual power. She was just about to explain the method of control when she noticed those admiring looks transform into horror in a flash.

“Look! Her… her eyes are red!”

“It’s the Blood Pupils! Mother said the Blood Pupils are an omen of misfortune. She’s a monster! A freak!”

“Run! Don’t stay near her!”

The girl waved her hands in a frantic panic, trying to explain. “No, I’m not. I’m not!”

The children refused to listen to her explanation. They fled in terror, some throwing stones at her with eyes full of loathing, shouting, “Get lost, monster!”

Unable to dodge in time, a sharp stone grazed her forehead. Blood began to trickle down. The girl’s lips trembled; she froze for a moment, then fled in helpless desperation.

Was she a freak?

The blood flowing from her forehead pooled together, blurring her vision. A sharp pain spread through her as the blood-colored dream shattered into pieces.

“Wake up, Miss A-Xu! A-Xu!”

…Whose voice was that? A-Xu jolted awake from her dream, suddenly coughing up a mouthful of fresh blood.

Zhu Shengxi held her wrist lightly, channeling some spiritual power to stabilize her internal energy.

Feeling the pressure on her wrist, A-Xu’s vacant eyes regained their focus, finally seeing the person in front of her. “Zhu Shengxi?”

“It is me.” Seeing her regain consciousness, Zhu Shengxi quickly released her hand.

“I figured out the purpose of the formation in this room, but it’s already too late. It is gradually devouring our spiritual power.”

Upon hearing this, A-Xu took a brief look around the room. Bright and dark lines of the formation were interwoven and entangled, dense and claustrophobic like a spider’s web.

“The formation has been activated,” she judged, her brow furrowing slightly.

Zhu Shengxi pondered for a moment before drawing her Chenque Sword. “I will try to break the formation by force.”

Streaks of sword qi, laden with spiritual power, struck toward the wooden door. The door emitted a dull, booming sound, but the same door that could be pushed open with a light touch during the day now remained utterly motionless. Zhu Shengxi was about to try again when the walls of the room began to press inward. The volume of the room was visibly shrinking before their eyes.

A-Xu had been concentrating intensely on finding the formation’s core, but seeing the change in the room, her expression turned grave.

The wooden table and the bed were squeezed toward the center. The four walls were already deforming. Zhu Shengxi held her sword horizontally to brace against one wall while using her other hand to prop up the opposite side. A-Xu was forced backward until the two were standing back-to-back.

A-Xu exhausted her strength, but it was in vain. As the room grew smaller and smaller, Ling Zhuo’s voice suddenly rang out.

“Sister A-Xu, compared to you, I hate cultivators from famous orthodox sects like Immortal Zhu even more. If you strike and wound her right now, I might consider sparing your life.”

In a life-or-death moment, who wouldn’t want to live? Furthermore, she and A-Xu weren’t even considered friends.

Zhu Shengxi secretly tightened her grip on the Chenque Sword. If A-Xu made a move against her, she would defend herself immediately.

Ling Zhuo’s words were a blatant attempt at sowing discord, wanting to see them turn against each other. Zhu Shengxi would not fall for it by attacking first, but she would certainly not allow herself to be slaughtered.

A moment of silence passed as the three of them harbored their own thoughts. A-Xu gave a cold sneer. “Pah! Don’t call me sister. Your current appearance isn’t your true age, is it?”

While her mouth rambled on, she secretly sent a mental transmission to Zhu Shengxi: “When I turn around in a moment, let go.”

Zhu Shengxi lowered her eyelashes, but the hand gripping the sword hilt did not loosen.

A-Xu glanced at her from the corner of her eye. Seeing the flicker of hesitation in her expression, she transmitted again: “Daoist Zhu, trust me.”

Ling Zhuo’s voice rang out again, her tone icy. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes to consider.”

A-Xu steadied her mind and suddenly spun around. As she turned, Zhu Shengxi dropped her hands. The walls on both sides closed in rapidly. A-Xu pulled an object from her robe and swiftly slammed it into the wall Zhu Shengxi had been facing.

With a resounding boom, the compressing walls vanished and the scene changed instantly. The two were standing on a long street. On both sides of the street were crowds of Suluo tribespeople, and Ling Zhuo stood right across from them.

A-Xu stared at her, clarifying coldly, “Ling Zhuo, I am not like you. At the very least, I don’t kick people when they’re down.”

Ling Zhuo arched an eyebrow, her tone tinged with surprise. “You actually kept one of those fruits and discovered that the fruit was the formation’s core. I truly underestimated you.”

After speaking, she shifted her gaze toward Zhu Shengxi, shaking her head with a sigh. “Alas, you weren’t willing to drop a stone on someone in a well, but I see Immortal Zhu was clutching her sword the whole time, terrified you’d strike her. She doesn’t trust you at all.”

Zhu Shengxi remained silent, offering no defense.

A-Xu ignored the divisive comments. “Let us leave.”

Ling Zhuo’s gaze darkened. “Still thinking of leaving? Since you voluntarily gave up your path to survival… then stay and die with her.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, a powerful wave of spiritual power struck toward them. A-Xu had just pulled the jade flute from her waist when she was suddenly pulled behind someone.

“Your spiritual power is too depleted; you can’t block this,” Zhu Shengxi dropped these words before merging her two fingers. The Chenque Sword instantly transformed into ten thousand sword shadows.

A-Xu looked at her back, her hand gripping the jade flute tightening.

Both of them had their spiritual power drained by the room’s formation. If A-Xu couldn’t block it, did Zhu Shengxi think she could?

The moment the sword shadows collided with that spiritual power, they shattered. Zhu Shengxi groaned, stumbling back several steps.

This spiritual power felt both familiar and strange. Zhu Shengxi’s face was deathly pale as she looked at Ling Zhuo in disbelief. “You… were you once a disciple of the Three Great Immortal Sects?”

The reason she said “once” was because the spiritual power was not pure; it was faintly laced with a trace of black energy.

Since she had been found out, Ling Zhuo didn’t plan to pretend anymore. She tilted her chin toward Zhu Shengxi. “Speaking of which, you should call me ‘Senior’.”

Zhu Shengxi suppressed the metallic taste in her throat, ignoring the sharp pain in her internal organs. She asked again, “Is Chief Gu also a disciple of the Three Great Immortal Sects?”

Ling Zhuo didn’t bother answering her. She raised her hand slightly. “Enough nonsense.”

Zhu Shengxi watched the spiritual power gathering in Ling Zhuo’s palm, a sliver of despair rising in her heart.

Right then, A-Xu held up a bone whistle and shouted at her, “Ling Zhuo, look at what this is!”

Ling Zhuo glanced over. When she saw what was in A-Xu’s hand, her expression changed abruptly. She commanded, “Don’t!”

A-Xu ignored her and blew the bone whistle. A shrill, piercing sound rang out. The expressions on the Suluo tribespeople on either side changed from blankness to terror. Strands of black energy began to rise continuously from their bodies. Then, their forms turned into silt, collapsing with a crash and merging into the original dust of the desert.

Seeing this, Ling Zhuo ran over in a panic. Her fingers passed right through the bodies of the Suluo people, leaving her hands full of nothing but sand.

Taking advantage of this gap, A-Xu supported Zhu Shengxi and whispered, “Do you have any treasures? For escaping.”

Zhu Shengxi pulled a wooden boat from her storage bag. After injecting spiritual power into it, the boat quickly grew in size and rose into the air. Once the two leaped onto it, Zhu Shengxi placed several spirit stones into the grooves, and the boat quickly flew away automatically.

A-Xu looked at it curiously. “Is this an Immortal Vessel?”

Her internal organs were throbbing with pain. Zhu Shengxi didn’t have time to respond before her vision went black, and she fainted.

In the final moment before losing consciousness, she felt as though she had fallen into a soft embrace, and the blood on her lips was gently wiped away.

The sound of a iron crutch tapped lightly as Chief Gu slowly approached. She surveyed the mounds of sand added to the sides of the street and sighed. “Do you still want to stay here?”

Ling Zhuo knelt in the dust, muttering incessantly, “Gone. It’s all gone.”

Chief Gu looked at her, frowning as she reminded her, “Release that woman.”

Ling Zhuo looked back at her, her eyes filled with a bloodthirsty red. She mocked, “Release her? Why? I am still waiting for Li Yishuang to come find me herself.”

Chief Gu: “You should let go of the past early, just like I did. Don’t dwell on what’s gone.”

Hearing her say this, Ling Zhuo eyed her coldly and sneered, “Stop pretending. To tell the truth, you want to see Feng Yu again too, don’t you? She was so heartless back then, treating you like that. Don’t you hate her? Don’t you resent her?”

“You say you stayed here with me to persuade me to turn back. Senior Sister, stop deceiving yourself. Ask yourself—can we ever go back? Other than staying in this desert where no one cares, where else can we go? Do you know why Feng Yu didn’t hunt us down back then? It’s because we fled to this place. She crippled half your cultivation and assumed I cared for my clansmen and wouldn’t leave easily. To her, we were no longer a threat; there was no need to keep chasing us. Believe it or not, the moment we appear in the Eastern Profound Domain, she will immediately send people to kill us.”

Hearing that familiar name mentioned, Chief Gu gritted her teeth. Her expression finally shifted, and she said in a trembling voice, “What do you know? You know nothing!”

Ling Zhuo said hatefully, “Yes, there are many things I don’t understand, but at least I am not cowardly like you, and I certainly won’t forget the grudge of our clan’s extermination. I have always remembered the pain those people from the Xuanqing Sect gave me. One day, I will return it all.”

Ling Zhuo’s eyes were filled with heavy resentment and hatred. Chief Gu looked at her, unable to utter a single word of persuasion.

Back then, she had followed her master’s orders to persuade Ling Zhuo to let go of her obsession and return with her. But the blood debt of a slaughtered clan was real, and their master’s indifference was also real. How could she expect Ling Zhuo to act as if nothing had happened?

She could never see through that person’s intentions. To this day, she still didn’t understand why her Golden Core was shattered later, or why she was branded a demon and expelled from the Xuanqing Sect without being allowed a single word of defense.

The wind and sand filled the sky, sweeping away all traces. This place had returned once more to a dead city.

Meanwhile, on the Immortal Vessel.

A faint, ghostly fragrance lingered at the tip of her nose. Zhu Shengxi woke up to find herself on a soft bed.

“This Immortal Vessel of yours has everything, doesn’t it?” A-Xu sat by the bed, resting her chin on her hand as she watched her, her eyes bright as stars.

Zhu Shengxi didn’t like that direct gaze. She looked away and pushed herself up.

“Hey,” A-Xu immediately spoke to stop her, “you haven’t recovered from your serious injuries. It’s best to lie down and rest.”

Hearing this, Zhu Shengxi didn’t insist. She asked, “Did you light this incense?”

A-Xu didn’t notice the abnormality in her tone and answered casually, “Yeah. Is there anyone else here besides me?”

“Who gave you permission to touch the things here?” Zhu Shengxi’s voice went cold, her face darkening slightly.

The sudden coldness of her tone left A-Xu stunned for a moment. A-Xu guiltily rubbed her nose and said softly, “Sorry, I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to light it.”

Having said that, she ran over and extinguished the incense.

Seeing the genuine apology in the girl’s eyes, Zhu Shengxi softened her tone and explained, “The Immortal Vessel isn’t mine. Do not move the things on it.”

A-Xu hummed in agreement and returned to sit by the bed. “Guess what Ling Zhuo said when we left?”

Hearing her say this, Zhu Shengxi had a bad premonition. “What?”

A-Xu: “Those Suluo tribespeople were dead long ago. Ling Zhuo took the spiritual energy of cultivators to sustain their breath, allowing them to move like normal people. My use of the bone whistle returned their three souls to their proper place, which is equivalent to destroying the plan and effort Ling Zhuo has maintained all this time.”

Zhu Shengxi listened patiently. “So, the cultivators who went to the Suluo Clan before actually died because she took their spiritual energy. She wanted to use those same methods on us.”

A-Xu nodded. “Yeah. Those bandits were probably a setup she arranged as well, deliberately making us soft-hearted so we’d lower our guard.”

Zhu Shengxi mused, “No wonder Chief Gu told us to leave several times. She must have known about Ling Zhuo’s actions long ago. I wonder what her relationship with Ling Zhuo is.”

“And that woman who bumped into me—I wonder how she is. If it weren’t for her reminder, I wouldn’t have picked up the fruit, and I wouldn’t have been able to break the formation,” A-Xu sighed.

“However, now that Ling Zhuo’s life’s work is ruined, no one else will be victimized in the future.”

Zhu Shengxi: “Back to the previous topic. What did Ling Zhuo say at the end?”

“Ling Zhuo said she wants to seek revenge on us,” A-Xu paused, then suddenly grabbed Zhu Shengxi’s sleeve tightly. “Daoist Zhu, her cultivation is high, and I definitely can’t beat her alone. So…”

Zhu Shengxi tugged at her sleeve but couldn’t pull it free. “So?”

A-Xu smiled. “Let me stay with you.”

Zhu Shengxi yanked her sleeve out of the girl’s hand and refused without hesitation. “No.”

A-Xu looked pitiful, pouting her lips. “Why?”

“I am skilled in medicine and toxicology; I can ensure you are immune to all poisons. I… I can also make you happy. And, who knows, when we encounter danger, I might be able to help you turn peril into safety.”

Make her happy?

Zhu Shengxi doubted she had heard correctly. This person had angered her time and again—when had she ever made her happy?

Immune to all poisons, turning peril into safety… This was the first time she had met someone who boasted about themselves so extravagantly.

Truly thick-skinned.

Zhu Shengxi remembered that the formations in the Tianqian Realm and the one set by Ling Zhuo were all broken by this person. She asked her, “Who exactly are you?”

A-Xu chuckled. “Didn’t I tell you already? I am just an obscure, ordinary cultivator.”

Zhu Shengxi stared at her intently. “Fine. Then I ask you, why do you want to follow me?”

A-Xu leaned forward slightly. “Your cultivation isn’t low, and you come from a famous sect. If I am with you, I’ll have some protection when Ling Zhuo comes for revenge. If I put it that way, do you believe me?”

One of her hands was braced beside Zhu Shengxi. When she leaned in, the distance between them became incredibly close.

Zhu Shengxi’s back was against the wall with no room to retreat. She looked up and met her eyes.

Seeing her helpless state, the corners of A-Xu’s lips curled up. She asked softly, “Before this, were you just obsessed with cultivation and rarely left your sect?”

Zhu Shengxi hid the surprise in her eyes and said, “I have been out of the sect for training many times.”

A-Xu stared at her without blinking, saying with absolute certainty, “You’re lying.”

She twirled a lock of Zhu Shengxi’s hair around her finger. “It doesn’t show on your face, but your eyes always reveal what’s in your heart. You are easily seen through by others.”

Zhu Shengxi brushed her hand away and said coldly, “Don’t touch me.”

A-Xu didn’t mind and withdrew her hand. Just as she was about to stand up, the Immortal Vessel suddenly lurched. Caught off guard, A-Xu fell straight onto Zhu Shengxi.

Contrary to her cold exterior, her body was soft, just like any other woman’s. For some reason, A-Xu thought of a hedgehog—it looks covered in thorns, but when it trusts you wholeheartedly, it reveals its soft underbelly.

A-Xu looked up in a daze, meeting the other woman’s indignant gaze. She hurriedly explained, “This… this wasn’t on purpose. The ship just jolted suddenly.”

Zhu Shengxi said nothing, silently withdrawing the hand that had been supporting A-Xu’s left shoulder.

A harmless bit of physical contact, merely to keep her from falling off the bed.

“I’ll go see what’s happening.” A-Xu stood up quickly and pushed open the wooden window to look outside.

That one look caused her expression to change drastically.