After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 10

Huh?

The calm voice of Luo Qingyi lingered in her ears, as if she were discussing the most ordinary of matters. It took Wu Ruo a moment to snap back to reality and realize that Luo Qingyi was talking about the dish.

Her heart began to race uncontrollably again, a cold sweat forming unnaturally on her forehead. Her hands, hanging at her sides, clenched into fists.

The other woman was suffering from amnesia and had no recollection of the past and now, the topic had been brought up.

If she seized this opportunity to lie, it would be the perfect chance to deepen Luo Qingyi’s fondness for her and keep her by her side.

All she had to do was say “yes” and spin a tale. Given the current logic, she could make the other woman believe it without a doubt.

“Yes, you actually remember? This used to be your favorite. I made it for you often.”

And then, she could weave countless stories of their reunion. They could have been childhood sweethearts separated in their youth, or former classmates who lost touch on the path of cultivation. She was excellent at fabricating stories, her words convincing enough to blur the line between truth and lies.

“No,” she said.

The unease dissipated, and her heart settled with a resolute thud.

“I don’t know why it feels familiar to you. Maybe it’s just because my cooking is too good, haha,” Wu Ruo scratched her head, laughing as if a weight had been lifted. “Great chefs share a similar touch, especially someone as talented as me. Hey, don’t laugh.”

Luo Qingyi smiled softly, her jade-like face glowing with a gentle radiance.

She picked up another large cluster of white mushrooms and paused briefly as they entered her mouth. Her smile stiffened for a second before she quickly composed herself, her expression still serene, gentle, and untouched by worldly concerns.

“Mmm, good,” Luo Qingyi said softly, swallowing the overly salty bite. As someone who had long abstained from rich flavors, she disliked the heaviness, yet her expression remained unchanged.

She observed the Miao girl’s pure, almost foolishly innocent smile and slightly lowered her lashes.

She was testing her.

A completely unfamiliar environment, an unfamiliar girl, unfamiliar witchcraft, and an unfamiliar way of life.

Losing her memories and her grasp on the things around her left her deeply unsettled.

Though she had lost her memories, she hadn’t lost her wits. Every gesture and movement was still guided by instinct. In this entirely unknown situation, her only reliable tool was her never-failing intuition.

Her intuition told her that those who practiced witchcraft were not to be trusted. Yet it also told her that this sweet-faced girl, whose smile was like spring blossoms, was pure-hearted and kind, harboring no ill will toward her someone she could rely on.

But she still needed to test whether the girl was the type to lie.

She could see that the girl was eager to please her, almost as if she wanted to lay everything good at her feet. But Miao witchcraft was notorious for its deceitful ways, and she needed to see the girl’s true nature.

No one gives without expecting something in return especially not a witch.

Those who practiced witchcraft, keeping company with insects, snakes, and scorpions, were nothing short of infamous. Though their poisons were like ants trying to shake a mighty tree to the powerful, most cultivators regarded them with half a mind of caution, unwilling to associate with them.

“But I feel like I know you very well,” Luo Qingyi continued to probe.

The woman’s left hand rested naturally on the table, fingers subtly forming a hand seal, a subconscious instinct had guided her to cast the Truth-Detecting Seal. Though severely injured, it didn’t hinder her from performing simple spells. If the other party lied, she would sense it immediately.

“Mmm! We have met before, though you might not remember. But I remember you very clearly!” Wu Ruo smiled, her dimples faintly visible. “You saved me once, descending like a celestial maiden so dashing and powerful! If not for you back then, I would have already vanished from this world.”

The Truth-Detecting Seal in her palm remained still, her fingertips still interlaced in the seal’s formation. Luo Qingyi gave a slight nod. “So that’s it. No wonder I felt a sense of familiarity with you.”

“You do remember me!” Wu Ruo’s excitement flared instantly. The chopsticks slipped from her hand, rolled across the table, then bounced off and clattered to the floor.

The girl crouched to pick them up, hiding her face in the crook of her arm. “I’m so happy, hehe.”

This exhilaration wasn’t feigned, it came straight from the heart. Luo Qingyi understood this well. Just as she was about to retract the seal, the other girl added more.

“In our Miao, I mean, in our family, there’s a rule: a drop of kindness must be repaid with a spring. When it comes to saving lives, it means if you save me once, I must repay you at least twice. Otherwise, it becomes a knot in my heart and hinders my cultivation!”

Wu Ruo paused before continuing, “So, stay with me a little longer, don’t rush to leave. It’s rare for me to get a chance to repay you. I must follow our ancestral teachings to resolve this knot and continue my cultivation. Please, won’t you help me out?”

She didn’t want to deceive Luo Qingyi. Even if the other had lost her memories, she refused to let falsehoods shape her perception.

But a little embellishment was harmless, right? Like fabricating an ancestral rule about repaying debts. Luo Qingyi was so kind, she’d surely stay out of concern, not wanting her to develop inner demons. Then Wu Ruo could work on deepening their bond.

She had concocted this excuse on the spot in a minute, and it sounded quite convincing. She was brilliant!

Hmph, truly a genius-level excuse!

Luo Qingyi subtly sensed the faint tremor of the spiritual seal in her palm. With a slight pinch of her fingers, she extinguished the seal’s glow, proof of a lie.

Repaying kindness was a lie, then.

“Very well, I’ll stay.”

For some reason, an imperceptible trace of disappointment settled in her heart. She cast a quiet glance at the girl, now lost in excitement, but made no outward reaction. Swallowing a sip of broth, she once again checked the state of her meridians and organs.

No toxins, no impurities her spiritual energy remained abundant. As for the nurturing of her dantian, the Gu insect Wu Ruo had fed her that morning was indeed repairing her damaged meridians.

If repaying kindness was a lie, why treat her so well? Did she covet her spiritual power?

She couldn’t quite figure her out.

And so, Wu Ruo kept Luo Qingyi by her side, scheming daily about how to grow closer.

But she had never been in love before. The girls in her Miao tribe were all pure-hearted, she’d never even seen how courtship was done, let alone experienced it herself. She had no idea how to pursue someone.

Naturally, she made no progress either. Every day, she mechanically treated Luo Qingyi’s injuries and administered medicine, while also experimenting with different ways to cook for her. Beyond that, there wasn’t much else.

Luo Qingyi, unable to recall anything, suggested reading some books, hoping they might spark a memory.

But Wu Ruo didn’t want her to recover after all, someone as extraordinarily talented as Luo Qingyi would surely leave once she remembered everything. So, Wu Ruo deliberately picked out frivolous, shallow romance novels from the library to fulfill Luo Qingyi’s request.

It was just as well, she could also learn a thing or two about how other people fell in love.

Luo Qingyi accepted them without complaint, reading with great interest. Wu Ruo rarely indulged in such books herself, but as she read alongside Luo Qingyi, it felt like discovering a whole new world. She was pleasantly surprised to find such captivating stories existed.

For instance, there was one book that depicted the love-hate relationship between a righteous senior sister and a demonic junior sister today, you slaughter my entire sect; tomorrow, I draw my blade against you.

The prose was exquisite, the story tragic. Wu Ruo wept uncontrollably, sniffling as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand, tugging at Luo Qingyi’s sleeve and exclaiming, “This is so heartbreaking!”

Luo Qingyi glanced at her, her gaze as calm as ever. Seeing Wu Ruo’s eyes red from crying, she sighed and pulled a silk handkerchief from her pocket. “There, there. It’s all fiction. No need to cry.”

“Don’t you find it tragic?! Waaah! This part, where the junior sister, driven mad by her demonic blood, wakes to find herself surrounded by the corpses of her sect and kneels in the snow all night, begging her senior sister for forgiveness, how could it not be heartbreaking?!”

Yet Luo Qingyi only smiled faintly, gently wiping the lingering tears from Wu Ruo’s face. “Well, everything in this world follows its own course. Some things are simply beyond our control.”

Her tone was serene, as if she had long grown accustomed to the sorrows of life and death. The conflict between righteousness and evil was but a minor episode in her transcendent state of mind.

“You!”

Wu Ruo wiped her tears, suddenly feeling puzzled. This novel had been unanimously deemed the most tragic story in their class even Jin Hua, who usually scoffed at such things, had secretly cried into her handkerchief in the middle of the night.

So why did Luo Qingyi seem like nothing more than a detached observer, as if she were reading a bland, unremarkable account? To her, the words were merely tools for gathering information or passing time, incapable of stirring any emotional response.

But wasn’t the whole point of reading these novels to experience emotional highs and lows?

Luo Qingyi looked up, setting the book aside, and dabbed at Wu Ruo’s face again. “Alright, if you’re feeling sad, you can cry on my shoulder for a while.”

Her usually expressionless face softened with tenderness and patience perhaps even a hint of indulgence?

Wu Ruo stared at the woman so close to her, sniffled heavily, and obediently waited for her to finish drying her tears.

She wanted to punch herself. Luo Qingyi is so good to me, wuwu. Sister is the best person in the world. How could I, even for a moment.

Feel like she exists outside of this world?

“Then tell me, will the senior sister forgive the junior sister?”

“No,” Luo Qingyi replied. “Regardless of the reasons, a wrong is a wrong. It won’t change because of emotions or justifications.”

Yes, that was Luo Qingyi just like when Wu Ruo first saw her, a sword as clear as water, eyes that sharply distinguished black from white, righteousness from evil.

But there was still one more question she wanted to ask.

“You tell me, if junior sister hadn’t slaughtered the entire sect, but merely had the identity of a demon born with demonic blood Or if demonic cultivation was just frowned upon, but junior sister had done no wrong.”

She looked at Luo Qingyi, her gaze burning intensely.

“Could senior sister and her have had a better ending?”

A fire seemed to hang in her heart she didn’t know where it came from, nor whether it would ever settle. It simply burned, sometimes gently, sometimes fiercely, like wood splitting and turning into harder embers.

She watched as Luo Qingyi averted her eyes, lost in thought before answering with certainty.

“No.”

The woman’s voice was quiet and cold, much like the gleaming silver sword in her hand, or the snow Wu Ruo had never seen before.

“Good and evil cannot coexist. If junior sister was born a demon, then the moment her identity was revealed, she and senior sister would have already parted ways.”

“I see!” Wu Ruo couldn’t even hear her own reply. “Yes, haha!”

She stood up and fled the room as if escaping.

“It’s mealtime. I’ll go cook for you, something to look forward to.”

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