After Faking Her Death and Escaping, the Junior Sister Fell to the Demonic Path - Chapter 54

“What?!”

This sense of shock lasted until Venerable Wen Qing took the two of them away.

Five days after returning to the peak, Qin Qingyi still hadn’t fully recovered.

“Alright, you should calm down. It’s just a Co-Hearted Gu, what’s there to make a fuss about?”

A lazy voice came from Qin Qingyi’s mind, seemingly impatient with her for not having accepted reality yet.

“It’s easy for you to say. The key is, the name alone sounds suspicious, doesn’t it?”

Qin Qingyi complained.

“And you too, you just burrowed into someone’s Dantian without a word, setting up camp and living there. Is this the right thing to do to a junior?”

Unexpectedly, the other party didn’t respond to the complaint but instead corrected her: “You are a fox, not a person.”

Great, now they’re quibbling over words.

“Furthermore, I must emphasize to you, if it weren’t for saving your junior sister, I wouldn’t have been so weak as to need to parasitize your Dantian.”

The other party spoke with a righteous tone, and Qin Qingyi’s neck retracted segment by segment until she was completely deflated and had no temper left.

The matter had to be traced back to five days ago.

Just before Venerable Wen Qing found them at the Inverted Mountain, the Venerable suddenly spoke up cold-heartedly: “Go to the innermost part of the cave and do something for me.”

“That will count as repaying the favor of me saving your person.”

Because the other party had indeed spared no effort in saving Zhou Zhixue earlier, and because the other party belonged to the same clan as herself, Qin Qingyi didn’t doubt it and walked straight into the cave.

Following the other party’s instructions, Qin Qingyi meandered through the cave and reached the innermost side. In a crack in the wall, she saw a rusty, seemingly long-abandoned sword.

“This is my former Natal Sword. Pull it out, and you will have repaid my kindness.”

Is it really that simple?

Qin Qingyi’s brow twitched, and she still tentatively asked: “Venerable’s sword has become like this, then Venerable, you…”

I’m afraid you are long gone, aren’t you?

If the person were still alive, how could they allow their Natal Sword to drift here?

“I merely ascended, I didn’t die.”

The voice was faintly displeased.

Qin Qingyi understood and wisely kept quiet.

Oh, ascended.

Ascended is ascended, then.

But does anyone really ascend without taking their Natal Sword?

Qin Qingyi didn’t say anything, but clearly didn’t quite believe the other party’s words.

She leaned closer to examine the broken sword. It was truly in ruins, with only half a hilt remaining, and the blade was tattered and looked so thin that it might break with a touch.

“If I pull it out, will it really count as repaying you?”

Qin Qingyi turned her head to confirm with the person behind her again.

Even though there was no one behind her.

“Mmm.”

The voice was cold and detached.

Qin Qingyi received the command and no longer hesitated. After all, this was a great deal, a cheap advantage with no capital cost.

She placed her hand on the hilt, planning to build up her strength. After all, the sword was stuck in a rock crack and didn’t look easy to pull out.

“If you can’t pull it out, I’ll also consider the debt waived—”

It seemed the other party was not very certain that Qin Qingyi could pull out the sword, and even added an extra sentence.

However, the last word of the sentence got stuck because—

Qin Qingyi really pulled out the broken sword.

And it was effortless, as if there was no resistance, with a light tug, she pulled the broken sword out of the rock crack.

Moreover, because she hadn’t expected it to be so easy, she had built up strength, and the backward momentum even made her stagger a few steps.

After wobbling a few times and barely steadying herself, Qin Qingyi finally had time to look down at the rusty broken sword in her hand.

With just one glance, she couldn’t help but curl her lips, an expression of distaste clear on her face.

“You actually pulled it out?!”

A voice of disbelief came from behind. Qin Qingyi turned her head and nearly bumped into the other party.

For some reason, the other party appeared right behind her, extremely close.

Qin Qingyi quickly stepped back a few paces to create distance, feeling rather bewildered: “Didn’t you ask me to pull it out?”

Perhaps her expression was too obvious, the other party also realized the slip of the tongue and was about to say something to compensate, but another voice came from outside the cave entrance.

“Qingyi—, are you inside?”

It was Venerable Wen Qing’s voice.

Qin Qingyi’s expression lit up with joy.

“Master, I’m here.”

With that, Qin Qingyi had no time to deal with this unknown Venerable in the cave. She shoved the broken sword into the other party’s arms and quickly said: “Junior has gotten the item the Venerable requested. Now that my Master has arrived, I will take my leave.”

With that, she hurried out.

As she walked, she called out: “Master, your disciple is here.”

Afraid that if she was a second late, Venerable Wen Qing might think she wasn’t there and go elsewhere.

Just as she was about to reach the light, a surge of spiritual power rapidly attacked her from behind, directly hitting Qin Qingyi’s Dantian. She didn’t have time to resist and was invaded by it.

“I’ve changed my mind. You taking me out of here counts as repaying my favor.”

A rogue voice came from the Dantian. Only then did Qin Qingyi realize that the other party had directly occupied her Dantian.

Moreover, she was unable to drive it out, and could only let the other party occupy her Dantian.

Qin Qingyi was instantly furious and spoke recklessly: “You go back on your word! What kind of gentleman are you?!”

Breaking a promise in the blink of an eye, changing orders overnight, isn’t that the act of a petty person?

But the other party’s skin was extremely thick and didn’t care about what she said. In short, they were settled in the Dantian and refused to leave.

“Alright, your Master is already waiting outside. If you don’t go out now, they’ll start to suspect something. Hurry up and go.”

Thus, the person followed Qin Qingyi all the way to the Sword Gate.

Qin Qingyi finally managed to narrate their encounter in a way that downplayed the severity, concealing the fact that Zhou Zhixue was in danger and that she had split off half of her demon core; she also reported the situation in the Black Water Cliff Devil’s Cave.

Now Venerable Wen Qing was already preoccupied with this matter, and the entire Sword Gate was on high alert.

It seemed that it wouldn’t be long before they would truly go to war with the Demon Clan.

Qin Qingyi sighed.

Fortunately, no matter what, the fact that she and her junior sister encountered danger at the Black Water Cliff was kept hidden.

Zhou Zhixue had woken up when Venerable Wen Qing arrived, but her expression was quite confused, unaware of where she was or what had happened.

Qin Qingyi naturally knew why. To avoid exposure, she had to suppress the fact that the Venerable was residing in her Dantian and fabricated a lie to deceive Venerable Wen Qing and Zhou Zhixue.

She merely said that Zhou Zhixue had called her back, and the two of them stopped exploring the Black Water Cliff, but they just happened to run into the Demon Clan and were chased all the way, only ending up at the Inverted Mountain in their panic.

“The Inverted Mountain is several thousand li away from the Black Water Cliff. The two of you certainly ran fast.”

Venerable Wen Qing’s words were profound at the time, with various emotions floating in their eyes, but Qin Qingyi was too guilty to notice.

She just nodded aimlessly, thinking about how to quickly muddle through the matter.

Today, she had nothing to do and finally accepted the current situation, knowing that the person in her Dantian was sticking to her. Although she didn’t know why she was chosen, after five days of testing, she also knew that the other party had no ill will towards her.

Since it has come, let it be.

Given the circumstances, Qin Qingyi had no other choice but to let the other party stay in her Dantian.

With such a powerful figure guarding her Dantian, perhaps they could even come out and save her life during a crisis.

Thinking this way, Qin Qingyi managed to comfort herself.

After not leaving her room for five days, Qin Qingyi was worried about her junior sister, so she thought of going to find Zhou Zhixue.

It would also be a good opportunity to test how much the other party still remembered and whether she had truly forgotten everything that happened at the Black Water Cliff that day.

But halfway there, she suddenly remembered something and turned to ask the person in her Dantian: “Junior seems to still not know Venerable’s name?”

“Now that Venerable is residing in Junior’s Dantian, it’s not right not to let Junior know anything, is it?”

They were living inside her body; surely telling her the true identity wasn’t too much, right?

The voice in the Dantian huffed twice: “Unworthy descendant, as a junior of the same clan, you don’t even know your ancestor’s name. Truly disrespectful to the ancestors.”

Qin Qingyi was speechless for a moment.

“The Demon Clan has such a long history, and there have been quite a few who ascended before. In the vast library of books, does Junior have to engrave the name of every single Venerable into her mind?”

The other party was annoyed: “Little fox, you are sharp-tongued. Is this how your mother taught you?”

“That’s still better than certain people who play god, go back on their word, and now act like an elder, truly unknowable. At least my mother didn’t teach me to take advantage of others and directly move into someone else’s Dantian.”

She spoke unceremoniously, not yielding just because the other party was an elder. This left the other party speechless and choked up.

“Alright, since you want to know, I’ll tell you then.” The voice in the Dantian seemed to compromise, and the tone softened: “I am the two hundred and sixty-fourth ascendant of the Fox Clan, known as Immortal Venerable Wuwang in the Xuan Tian Realm.”

She spoke with pride, but Qin Qingyi scoffed at it.

“Just boast. If you don’t want to say it, then don’t. Why insist on calling yourself Immortal Venerable Wuwang? Who in the Xuan Tian Realm doesn’t know that Immortal Venerable Wuwang entered the Dao through killing and ascended to the upper realm a thousand years ago? Why would they linger in this realm?”

“Don’t even pick your targets when boasting. You are a strong practitioner of the Demon Clan, yet who doesn’t know that Immortal Venerable Wuwang was a human ascendant? Why tell a lie that can be exposed so easily?”

Qin Qingyi completely disbelieved her words. Instead, she felt as if she had caught the other party in a lie and mocked them thoroughly.

Afterward, she ignored the other party’s defense and headed straight for Zhou Zhixue’s residence.

“Junior Sister, are you there?”

She stood outside the door, ignoring the constant “I really am Immortal Venerable Wuwang” yelling and jumping in her Dantian, and knocked on Zhou Zhixue’s door.

Qin Qingyi thought that this time she had to properly comfort her junior sister. Although the junior sister probably didn’t remember what happened at the time, and all her injuries had been healed, it was indeed her own misjudgment that caused the disaster. She felt guilty and needed to properly compensate her junior sister.

She was wondering which treasure to take from her spatial bracelet and what to say to make Zhou Zhixue feel at ease accepting it when the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

A burst of sword energy emanated from within the door, causing Qin Qingyi to first take a step back, and then, in order to stand firm, she used too much force and leaned too far forward, almost falling over due to inertia.

Barely stabilizing herself, she awkwardly looked up, meeting the icy and stern gaze of Zhou Zhixue.

“Senior Sister, what is the matter?”

The voice was as clear and cold as an icicle falling from a winter eave, sending a chill down Qin Qingyi’s spine.

Qin Qingyi raised her head and met Zhou Zhixue’s eyes. For some reason, she suddenly felt that the eyes of the person before her were too unfamiliar, without the slightest hint of the gentleness from before. As she looked, there seemed to be threads of coldness.

“Nothing…” She suddenly couldn’t speak.

Then, noticing the somewhat stronger aura on Zhou Zhixue, she couldn’t help but ask:

“Junior Sister, have you advanced again?”

Zhou Zhixue slightly lowered her gaze: “Yes.”

“I don’t know why, but since returning that day, I felt a realization about my current realm, so I focused on closed-door cultivation for two days and stepped into a new realm.”

She explained softly.

Just now, she had broken through the fifth stage of the Path of Emotionless.

Her strength had also increased a level, and she was now at the Peak of Nascent Soul.

Ah, advanced.

No wonder, the aura feels different.

It’s good that she advanced. Advancing meant that what happened that day really hadn’t caused any impact on her.

Qin Qingyi opened her mouth, not knowing what else to say.

Especially as she noticed the obvious distance the other party kept from her and the emotionless words.

An awkward silence fell between the two.

Qin Qingyi let out a dry laugh, breaking the silence.

“Junior Sister, do you have any plans recently? Why don’t you come with Senior Sister to the training grounds? It would be a good chance to spar with Junior Sister.”

Saying this, she stepped forward, wanting to hold Zhou Zhixue’s hand to break the strange distance between them.

But the other party took a step back, pulling away again.

Her hand was left awkwardly suspended in mid-air.