After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 22.1

Wu Ruo stared at the woman before her, whose face was deathly pale. The woman’s expression was like that of a startled wild crane, frozen as if facing a mortal threat, an anguish Wu Ruo couldn’t comprehend.

Yet she could vaguely sense the woman’s cultivation level, unfathomably deep.

Someone like this, dressed in such celestial elegance, lofty and untouchable, must be a prominent figure in the cultivation world.

What could a minor Gu practitioner like her, from a small Miao village, have done to warrant being captured alive by these righteous cultivators? What did these idle busybodies plan to do with her? Did they find her Gu cultivation too unorthodox, intending to execute her publicly and offer her blood as a sacrifice to the heavens?

And what was this woman doing here?

Though she knew her own strength was like an ant trying to shake a mighty tree, Wu Ruo remained unyielding, watching the woman with wary vigilance.

A jade teacup shattered on the ground, fragments scattering everywhere. Tea stains pooled on the floor, reflecting an eerie glow under the cold white light.

“Is this the signal to attack? How diligent of you to go to such lengths for me.”

She exhaled in relief, as if the sword hanging over her head had finally fallen. Before such a mighty figure, her life was already insignificant. What mattered was standing tall in death, not groveling for survival.

Recalling her past travels down the mountain, how her well-intentioned acts of healing had been mistaken for demonic cultivation, driving people to shun her Wu Ruo curled her lips. At the brink of death, she raised her voice defiantly.

“Kill me if you must, but allow me to reiterate Miao cultivation may be unconventional, but that doesn’t justify baseless suspicion and disdain. We have never colluded with demonic cultivators! Do not slander us with their name!”

“We of the Miao tribes have never harmed others. Our hearts are pure, witnessed by heaven and earth! You can verify this with the Mirror of Truth.”

The Mirror of Truth?

She suddenly paused, frowning in thought. The Mirror of Truth wasn’t something she had ever known or read about in any texts. How had the term slipped out so abruptly?

“I believe you, A’Ruo. The Miao are not demonic cultivators. Each path of cultivation is unique, we should seek common ground while respecting differences,” Luo Qingyi said hurriedly.

Ignoring the scattered shards on the ground, the woman took a step forward, wanting to approach Wu Ruo, only to halt when met with the other’s instinctive wariness. Stuck in place by that resistant gaze, she hesitated, neither advancing nor retreating.

“Thank you, Immortal, for your discernment. You have a wise eye and a kind heart.” Wu Ruo’s mood lightened slightly. This woman seemed fair-minded even if she had captured her without cause, at least she wasn’t prejudiced. That was something.

But her dear friend A’Xiang was waiting for her. The girl was afraid of the dark and couldn’t sleep alone. She needed to return quickly.

Since she was at the woman’s mercy, Wu Ruo tempered her tone with politeness. “Then, Noble Immortal, why have you brought me here? If there’s nothing else, may I return home? My family and friends are waiting for me.”

Home. Friends.

Those simple words drained the color from Luo Qingyi’s face. Just as she had steadied herself to face Wu Ruo, she was once again rendered speechless.

Wu Ruo remembered nothing. Her memories remained frozen in her youth, a time when she still had friends, and when the Miao lands were still vibrant and alive.

How could she tell the innocent Wu Ruo that in the earliest days of their past, in the fifth year after Wu Ruo followed her to the Zhiyuan Immortal Sect, the ancient Miao village had already been reduced to a sea of blood under the merciless slaughter of demonic cultivators, with no survivors.

This was her fault. Back then, Wu Ruo had been overwhelmed with grief, desperate to return to the Miao village to live and die with her people. And she could only hold her red-eyed partner tightly, her declining cultivation rendering her powerless to do anything but offer empty words of comfort.

“Ah Ruo!” Luo Qingyi paused for a moment, her violently pounding heart finally calming slightly. She spoke solemnly, “You don’t remember *You, um… you were a disciple sent by the Miao village to our sect for scholarly exchange, so you’ve been living here long-term. Since the agreed period hasn’t ended, you can’t leave without permission. I’m the senior sister assigned to assist you, responsible for your daily needs.”

She wasn’t skilled at lying. Closing her eyes, she gently sorted through her thoughts before continuing, “After you arrived, we developed feelings for each other in secret and became cultivation partners. But a few days ago, we took on a mission together to descend the mountain for training. Along the way, you unfortunately injured your primordial spirit and lost your memories.”

“I lost my memory?”

Wu Ruo carefully scrutinized the other’s words, but there didn’t seem to be any obvious flaws. Her mind felt hollow yet heavy, as if a portion of her memories were indeed missing.

She remembered that some unfamiliar people had indeed come to the Miao village, and there was talk of sending the most outstanding disciples out as exchange students. So she had been chosen? That meant she was quite impressive.

Wait, that wasn’t the point. The important part was the latter half of the statement.

She and this seemingly unfathomably powerful senior sister were in a relationship?

She studied the other’s appearance again. The woman did align perfectly with her aesthetic preferences, as if tailor-made to her tastes. But…

Her heart ached.

Just the thought that she might have had a past with this person sent a sharp pang through her chest, as though an irreparable, hideous scar lay there.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that the other was hiding many things from her. Besides, even if this immortal was breathtakingly beautiful, if being with her meant enduring such pain, Wu Ruo would rather not be involved at all. She wouldn’t willingly suffer.

“Elder Sister, please don’t tease me like this. You seem incredibly powerful, while I’m just a lowly little gu cultivator with pitifully weak cultivation. How could I possibly be worthy of you?”

The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them, fearing she might have angered the other. She hastily added some polite, scholarly phrasing to soften the blow: “I know you mean well perhaps you’re trying to motivate me to cultivate harder but there’s really no need. You don’t have to go this far.”

“That’s not it!” Luo Qingyi’s voice grew urgent for a moment, her usually restrained aura slipping slightly. “Ah Ruo, how could you think that? You’re the best!”

“Of course I know I’m the best, the smartest.”

Wu Ruo boasted shamelessly, yet the ache in her chest persisted, a pain she hadn’t felt upon first waking.

She keenly realized this suffering was tied solely to emotions. Whenever their conversation touched on their relationship as cultivation partners, her heart writhed in agony.

Fragments of teachings about the Great Dao surfaced unbidden in her mind. Though she couldn’t recall their source, they made perfect sense principles she ought to uphold as sacred.

“But Immortal Lord, thank you for your care. Although I don’t remember what cultivation techniques I practiced, the Great Dao is the law of heaven and earth? One must never abandon the root for the sake of trivial matters like romantic entanglements. Since I’ve come here, I must devote myself wholeheartedly to cultivation, not wasting a single moment, and certainly not letting love hinder my progress. Please don’t tease me anymore.”

“You!”

Luo Qingyi was at a loss for words. She had been standing there for a long time, frozen in place ever since Wu Ruo woke up, her posture stiff and unnatural.

These words were all too familiar to her.

The memory of a Great Ascension cultivator was unparalleled, capable of recalling even the smallest details from decades past.

Naturally, she remembered her time living in Miaojiang, and she remembered the views she had expressed when questioned by Chuncao about love her thoughts on the Dao of Heaven and Earth.

The Heavenly Dao was the true path, cultivation was the essence of one’s heart, and beyond that, all else was but fleeting illusion, superfluous and unnecessary.

Back then, she had spoken those words casually. Now, they tormented her beyond measure. She had no idea that Wu Ruo had heard them, that they had taken root in the girl’s subconscious, lingering for years like an unshakable curse.

The boomerang from years ago had come back to strike her with devastating force, shattering her to pieces.

“Ah Ruo, that’s not the case,” she murmured after a long, dazed silence, sighing. “The three thousand Great Daos all lead to the righteous path. When people meet and recognize one another, if fate allows, they flourish without defying cause and effect that is the true way. The path of a cultivator need not be one of severing emotions and forsaking love to uphold discipline.”

In the past, her heart had been set solely on abandoning the seven emotions and six desires, focusing only on cultivation as her sole purpose. After the gu poison was dispelled, the backlash of emotions had overwhelmed her mind.

She had believed that her fallen realm was caused by the love gu, that it was Wu Ruo’s doing, evidence of the girl’s unrepentant wickedness.

But after losing her, she realized that all people in this world harbored selfish thoughts and desires, that none could truly rid themselves of the grip of emotions, that most prioritized themselves and acted out of self-interest in every situation.

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