After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 30

A sudden upheaval erupted as the fierce wind retaliated. The Black Tortoise puppet rose once more, its massive shell blotting out the sky and moon, its thick limbs stomping against the ground with each step, shaking the earth like a mountain quaking.

“Prepare to die.”

The change came too quickly, leaving almost no time for anyone to react. Though the Black Tortoise puppet was enormous, its speed was astonishingly fast. In mere seconds, it had already closed the distance to Wu Ruo, lifting its front limb and stomping down with brutal force!

BOOM!

The earth shattered, the mountains crumbled, the deafening roar echoed far and wide. A colossal pit appeared in the ground, and the Chen disciple laughed maniacally, “Hahahaha! You dare oppose me? You’re asking for death!!”

Yet as the dust settled and the Black Tortoise lifted its limb again, the enormous pit revealed nothing.

“Impossible! That can’t be. That woman, with her low cultivation, couldn’t have escaped!”

The other guard disciples were equally stunned by the sudden turn of events, caught in a dilemma. By reason and duty, they were torn Chen was their fellow disciple, a comrade in their guard duties, yet the male cultivator before them now seemed like a demonic fiend, his expression terrifying, utterly unlike his usual self.

Moreover, the woman opposing him had also used techniques from their immortal sect, marking her as a fellow disciple. Yet she had violated the sect’s rule against leaving without urgent cause. With the Black Tortoise’s power beyond what ordinary cultivators could withstand, they could only watch anxiously, praying for her safety.

“Impossible! Show yourself! If you’re not here, did you get crushed under the Black Tortoise’s foot. Ugh, ahhh!”

Standing atop the Black Tortoise’s head, the male cultivator basked in his triumph until he suddenly felt a tightening around his neck. Looking down, he realized a monstrous serpent had silently coiled around him!

The snake’s head was as long as a grown woman’s forearm, its obsidian-black eyes gleaming like pure onyx. Its scales were sharp as blades, and a row of jagged, crown-like protrusions ran along its head, resembling the legendary divine beast, Ba She!

“Ahhh!”

The next moment, Wu Ruo descended on Jinghong Jiangshi, appearing before him in the blink of an eye. “Hmm. Opposing you? Asking for death.”

When the Black Tortoise puppet had locked onto her, she had gripped Jinghong Jiangshi without much hope, merely channeling a wisp of spiritual energy to test whether she could ride the sword like Jiang Qingbei and Yue Qinglan had before.

She had never learned, but through osmosis, she had grasped it instinctively.

A surge of immense power erupted from the sword in her hand, propelling her upward in an instant. She stood firmly upon it without the slightest discomfort, as though she had often ridden the wind upon a sword, gazing down upon the vast world below.

The Black Tortoise’s stomp became slow motion in her eyes. Riding Jinghong Jiangshi with the wind, she released the serpent from her personal space the moment the male cultivator laughed in arrogance.

No, it could no longer be called a small snake. After drinking Wu Ruo’s blood, it had fully ascended into a spiritual form, its body stretching dozens of meters long, transforming into a colossal spirit serpent of unparalleled size!

The giant serpent coiled around the Chen cultivator, tightening its grip under Wu Ruo’s mental command.

“Ahhh! You incorrigible! ” The man initially tried to sound tough, but as the giant snake’s grip tightened, his tone quickly changed. “I… ah! Have mercy, ugh! Spare me!”

Even as he pleaded, his hand stealthily reached into his storage pouch, fumbling for something,

“Heh heh heh.”

Swish.

Wu Ruo moved swiftly so fast that the man couldn’t even register her movement before her sword pierced through his arm, blood splattering everywhere.

“AAAHHH! I won’t dare anymore, I won’t! Please spare me! We’re fellow disciples, the Zhiyuan Immortal Sect forbids internal slaughter.”

His words ended in a scream. Wu Ruo, wielding the practice sword she always carried, sliced off the arm that had been reaching into the pouch without hesitation.

“AAAAHHH!”

The male cultivator finally collapsed under the agony, his spiritual energy dissipating from the severe injury. In his disoriented state, he slipped and tumbled heavily off the Black Tortoise’s head!

The storage pouch plummeted alongside him, and the Black Tortoise command token slipped from his grasp, only to be caught midair by the black snake. The serpent swiftly slithered back to Wu Ruo’s side, shrinking into a small, wrist-coiling creature that flicked its tongue with a hiss.

“Fellow disciple? Don’t flatter yourself.” Wu Ruo stroked the little snake’s head, her gaze lingering on her pet, though her words were clearly meant for the overambitious man. “I didn’t want to kill you, but…”

“You were in the way of me going home.”

She took the Black Tortoise command token and attempted to channel a wisp of spiritual energy into it. However, the token seemed to recognize she wasn’t a disciple of the Zhiyuan Immortal Sect and remained unresponsive. At the same time, the moment she seized the token, the Black Tortoise puppet’s limbs reconnected with the ground, entering standby mode.

In its final moment before freezing, the Black Tortoise’s massive forelimb like a towering pillar slammed down with precision, landing squarely on the body of the male cultivator surnamed Chen. Under his terrified gaze, the limb descended slowly.

A final glimmer flashed in its mechanical eyes: “No intruders detected. Shutting down.”

The Black Tortoise retracted into its dormant state, leaving behind only wreckage, a cultivator’s corpse and countless terrifying craters. The stone plaque inscribed with “Zhiyuan Immortal Sect” lay toppled on the ground, its grandeur reduced to dust.

Wu Ruo landed back on the ground and strode toward the mountain gate, this time unimpeded by any puppets. From afar, her long hair, disheveled from the earlier battle, fluttered in the wind, yet not a speck of dirt clung to her robes. With the sword in her hand, she looked almost divine as if an immortal had descended to the mortal realm.

“You!”

Wu Ruo glanced back. “Hmm?”

“Nothing.” The young girl from Luoxue Peak clapped a hand over her companion’s mouth. Though trembling from shock, she mustered unexpected courage and called out, “Are you Peak Master Luo’s partner? You two would make a perfect match.”

No answer came. Wu Ruo turned away expressionlessly and stepped beyond the mountain gate, where the moonlight grew thicker, never looking back.

Only after her figure vanished from sight did the onlookers burst into chatter: “Is she your martial aunt from Luoxue Peak? Is she Immortal Luo’s partner? She’s so strong for a moment, I thought it was Immortal Luo himself!”

“No, I don’t know her either, but she carries a strong aura of the Peak Master. She might be the Peak Master’s dao companion. For her to leave so late at night and draw her sword without hesitation, perhaps she had a falling out with the Peak Master.”

“This isn’t our concern. What we should be worrying about is how to handle the aftermath of this. Senior Sister Li, since you’re from Changfeng Peak, maybe you should ask your Peak Master.”

The group was fervently discussing something when they suddenly sensed two immensely powerful auras rushing from within the sect. In the blink of an eye, two female cultivators had landed beside them.

One wore bright yellow brocade robes, her wrists adorned with a jingling array of gold and silver bracelets even as she hurried. The other was clad in a plain light-blue daoist robe embroidered with intricate cloud patterns, the uniform reserved for high-ranking cultivators of Luoxue Peak.

“Aunt Jiang! Aunt Yue!”

Yue Qinglan paid no heed to formalities, urgently stepping forward. “You are Zhou Jingge, right? Tell me in detail what just happened here.”

The two had been resting in their quarters when they were abruptly notified by the guards at the foot of Luoxue Peak. Sensing something amiss, they swiftly descended the mountain on their swords only to arrive a step too late.

Jiang Qingbei crossed her arms and strode over to the deep crater in the ground, clicking her tongue. “Such a massive hole. Wu Ruo, don’t tell me you died, oh, it’s a man. Good.”

Zhou Jingge, the young disciple from Luoxue Peak, flustered by the attention, quickly recounted the events. When they heard that Wu Ruo had challenged a Nascent Soul cultivator despite her lower cultivation, Jiang Qingbei’s eyes widened in shock, while Yue Qinglan frowned, more concerned about Wu Ruo’s sudden departure.

“Her cultivation level is secondary. What matters is why she left alone after Senior Sister’s departure.”

“Maybe she missed her,” Jiang Qingbei said dismissively. “Ugh, why did you drag me here? Is she so bored that she had to run off?”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Yue Qinglan sighed. “Sister Qingbei, let’s go. If we don’t catch up, she might never return.”

“Why? She’s been doing fine lately, I even reluctantly started rooting for them. What’s gotten into her?”

“Because…” Yue Qinglan pointed in the direction Wu Ruo had taken, her expression grave. “This path leads to the ruins of Miaojiang.”

“She might already know about the fall of Miaojiang.”

Wu Ruo did not know the way home.

She had simply released her little snake, fed it a drop of her blood, and let the black serpent lead the way while she followed silently behind.

At first, she had only wanted to return home. But upon learning that Miaojiang was no more, she was lost. The world was vast, yet she drifted through it alone like a lingering ghost that should not exist, clinging to life without purpose.

When she was forcibly stopped and drew her sword, she felt satisfaction. Her mind, no longer consumed by grief and despair, found an outlet like a waterfall in flood season, surging uncontrollably.

For that moment, she forgot she had no home.

But emotions ebb and flow like the tide. If someone stood in her way, she would defeat them. If someone sought death, she would grant it. Yet, the moment that male cultivator fell, her heart ached abruptly for Luo Qingyi.

Luo Qingyi was a liar. The greatest, most unforgivable liar in the world.

A liar who deceived her in every way, who lied about Miaojiang still thriving in peace, who lied so she could live comfortably and carefree in Luoxue Peak, without a worry in the world.

And yet also the liar who, at the cost of half his bones and blood, sacrificed his own cultivation to rebuild her Dao bones, only to conceal the truth from her until the very end.

If only she could forget Luo Qingyi. If only the Forgetful Dust recorded in the ancient texts actually worked. Then she could erase everything the news of her homeland’s destruction, the pain Luo Qingyi had inflicted upon her, the love and hatred, the heartache that should never have existed in the first place.

She walked slowly, following the black serpent. The chirping of crickets in the night grass was loud, unbearably so. Compared to the silence of Luoxue Peak, everything outside was bustling with noise.

Stop. Don’t think. Don’t reminisce. You’ve already killed someone from Zhiyuan Immortal Sect, how could you ever return? Luo Qingyi would never take back a murderer who slaughtered her own sect members.

Go home first. Even if Miaojiang was gone, she had to see it for herself. She had to search the ruins for any traces, any signs maybe, just maybe, someone was still alive. Maybe someone had returned.

The black serpent slithered forward, but its movements grew slower and slower. And Wu Ruo realized why.

This was the path home. The serpent couldn’t have mistaken it.

Yet the road was now saturated with demonic energy, and at its end stood a massive signpost, marking the territory as belonging to the demon realm.

The surrounding forest had changed. The chirping of crickets and insects had faded, replaced by the growls and roars of demonic beasts, the sound of tearing flesh and gnashing teeth.

Wu Ruo collapsed to the ground in despair. The black serpent stopped advancing, coiling back to nuzzle her cheek in comfort.

“Little Black,” She wiped her tears, stroking the strange spikes on the serpent’s head, but the tears only fell harder, pattering onto its scales.

The serpent flicked its tongue, licking her fingers then, in the next moment, shrank to the size of a newborn, as thin as a pinky finger.

A familiar voice called out from the distance Jiang Qingbei’s unmistakably loud shout: “Wu Ruo, why’d you run off so fast, Huh? You, you’re crying? Hey, don’t cry!”

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