After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 38

The moment Wu Ruo locked eyes with Luo Qingyi, her mind went completely blank.

Ever since emerging from that eerie temple and setting foot on the Five Continents, she had shaken off the chattering duo from Luoxue Peak who had been trailing her, relishing the solitude. Occasionally, she felt a twinge of loneliness, but after stumbling upon Xiao Yu’er, even that sense of unfamiliar isolation faded.

At first, she had worried about the possibility of running into Luo Qingyi. But after wandering through Baihui City and Hundred Merchants Street, she realized just how vast the Five Continents truly were. Hundred Merchants Street was a world away from that strange temple, the odds of an encounter were slim to none.

By the time she arrived in the mortal realm, Luo Qingyi had completely slipped her mind.

So why was Luo Qingyi standing in the home of a mortal girl?

Wu Ruo’s eyes widened, convinced it was a hallucination. She squeezed them shut, then opened them again only to find Luo Qingyi still standing there, large as life, not disappearing in the slightest.

The other woman seemed equally stunned. “Ah Ruo?”

Not a hallucination, then.

Wu Ruo stood frozen in place, her hand still gripping the silver snake-handled dagger, an awkward tension thickening the air.

Instinctively, she glanced at the owner of the house, the little girl beside her. But Xiao Yu’er was already sneaking peeks at her expression, and when their eyes met as if Wu Ruo were about to demand answers, the girl just grinned sheepishly and turned away, refusing to meet her gaze.

The child’s earlier words suddenly echoed in her mind: “Your friend.”

Was the “friend” Xiao Yu’er mentioned Luo Qingyi?

Wu Ruo’s expression shifted through a myriad of emotions, while Luo Qingyi’s face remained etched with surprise. The latter seemed to have arrived in a hurry, her demeanor initially fierce but the moment she saw Wu Ruo, all that remained was shock.

When Wu Ruo didn’t respond, Luo Qingyi seemed to cast another spell. From what Wu Ruo knew of her, it was likely some kind of revelation charm, meant to unveil the truth of one’s surroundings.

After finishing the incantation, Luo Qingyi finally confirmed it was really her. Delight lit up her face. “A-Ruo, did you come looking for me?”

Xiao Yu’er, that little traitor, suddenly piped up, “Probably, right?”

Two pairs of eyes bore into Wu Ruo. She gritted her teeth and shot Xiao Yu’er a glare, but the brat just kept grinning, utterly oblivious.

Wu Ruo turned her gaze back to Luo Qingyi. The woman wasn’t wearing her veil, but subtle alterations had been made to her features through magic. To those unfamiliar with her, she wouldn’t be recognizable as Luo Qingyi.

Looking further down, her attire was simple, just an ordinary cultivator’s robe, woven from the plainest travel-grade cotton, its hem dusted with dirt. Unlike the fire-and-water-resistant sect robes of Zhiyuan Immortal Sect, this one offered no protection against external attacks. For cultivators, robes like these were either worn by rogue cultivators with no backing or by those so powerful they feared nothing.

Turns out, without her sect uniform, Luo Qingyi didn’t seem so icy after all.

Wu Ruo’s thoughts wandered unbidden before she forcibly reeled them back in.

She had already made up her mind to leave, why dwell on it now?

First, there was Luo Qingyi’s deception and secrecy, which had driven her to storm out in the dead of night, indirectly causing the death of a disciple from Changfeng Peak. But after witnessing the devastation of her homeland and forcing herself to steady her emotions, she had wanted to confront Luo Qingyi for the truth.

But all of it became insignificant in the wake of Jiang Qingbei’s dream.

She saw her past, the myriad moments of her life, and how she had been insulted, bullied, and tormented, how she had been trampled underfoot by nearly every disciple of the immortal sects, all because of her identity as “Luo Qingyi’s partner.”

Luo Qingyi’s explanations no longer mattered.

What mattered was that she wanted nothing to do with the other woman.

Considering Luo Qingyi’s earlier actions, she could guess what the woman was doing. Likely investigating something related to her mission perhaps sensing that the sword had been disturbed, she had hurriedly teleported back.

If that was the case.

“Mm, I came to find you,” she said. “Did I disturb you? You’ve been gone so long have you not found any leads yet? Go ahead with your work, don’t worry about me.”

Since Luo Qingyi was still occupied with her mission, she might as well play along. Once Luo Qingyi resumed her task, she could take the opportunity to leave.

“You didn’t disturb me,” Luo Qingyi replied. “Ah Ruo, I received Qinglan’s message. You left Luoxue Peak in the middle of the night but were stopped by the Black Tortoise puppet at the mountain gate. Were you hurt?”

“No, see?” Wu Ruo rolled up her sleeve and showed her arm openly. “Look, not a scratch. Oh, by the way, some man died. He deliberately blocked the path with a Black Tortoise token, but then he fell and got trampled by the Black Tortoise. When you go back, remember to deal with it when you have time. I heard from Qinglan that he was the beloved disciple of the Changfeng Peak master might be a bit troublesome.”

“No trouble. He got what he deserved.”

Luo Qingyi took Wu Ruo’s wrist and gently rubbed a small bruise at the base of her palm, her voice laced with concern. “Did he do this?”

“No, I just bumped into something on the way.” In truth, she had knocked into something while running in the Wishing Temple, but she decided to keep that to herself. “It’s fine, really. You should go back to your mission. I’d feel guilty if I delayed you.”

Luo Qingyi said nothing and didn’t mention the mission either. Instead, she pressed lightly on the bruise, silently reciting an incantation in her mind. Golden light spilled forth like water, and in the blink of an eye, the injury was healed.

“Thank you, but you don’t need to waste your spiritual energy on me. Save it that Wishing Temple is eerie. Be careful,”

“Ah Ruo.”

Luo Qingyi narrowed her eyes slightly, her tone turning serious. “Did you see something in the sect that made you leave so abruptly?”

“…” Wu Ruo fell silent for a moment, realizing that her earlier behavior had indeed been suspicious. She had been too eager to send Luo Qingyi away, her words careless and transparently evasive.

Fine.

This was as good a chance as any to get answers.

“Yes,” Wu Ruo admitted. “I saw the Gu vessel Sect Leader Jiang gave you. Inside was…”

She paused, choosing not to finish the sentence, and instead turned the question back to Luo Qingyi, her voice cooling. “ You know what that was, don’t you?”

“I do.” Luo Qingyi nodded but offered no further explanation. Instead, she pulled out a handful of colorful candies from her sleeve, who knew where she had gotten them. “Here, little one. Share them with your friends.”

“Wow! Thank you, sister!” Xiao Yu’er exclaimed with joy, picking up a piece and sniffing it. “There’s light on this!”

“Mhm, go out and play,” Luo Qingyi said.

The little girl skipped out happily, remembering to close the door tightly behind her, thoughtfully leaving the two of them space to talk.

“What’s inside is the Mother Gu, related to you,” Luo Qingyi explained. “Before something happened to you. This should be the manifestation of your Gu magic. I don’t know exactly what’s inside, but it likely takes the form of a Gu insect. Based on the sounds coming from it, it might be a centipede or a scorpion.”

“Mhm.”

Wu Ruo listened quietly. Seeing that the other person didn’t intend to continue, she pressed further, “If it’s something from me, then why keep it from me?”

She barely managed to stop herself.

“You!” Didn’t you promise you wouldn’t lie to me again?

She forced the second half of the sentence down, but the turmoil in her heart surged the moment she spoke. She didn’t want to, she didn’t mean to, but she couldn’t control it.

Don’t say it, don’t say it. She had already made up her mind. The sadness was over. She had chosen to leave, to part ways, to willingly let go not to dredge up past promises and act like some resentful victim!

She swallowed the storm raging inside her, her voice coming out slightly hoarse: “Mhm, Luo Qingyi, tell me your reason.”

“Because,” Luo Qingyi seemed taken aback by her calm demeanor, furrowing her brows and speaking gravely, “because the Gu magic might backlash against you.”

Luo Qingyi had thought of many excuses.

When she received Yue Qinglan’s letter, she had already anticipated many possible scenarios. The worst-case was Wu Ruo discovering the Mother Gu in the cabinet, and she had prepared explanations for that.

For instance, the side effects of Gu magic common to all Miaojiang Gu techniques would be a reasonable justification. Or, given that Wu Ruo had recently reforged her Dao bones, practicing Gu magic again now could easily disrupt her meridians.

But there was still a faint voice in her heart, fragile yet stubbornly rooted in her battered soul.

“Just backlash? As a descendant of the orthodox Gu lineage, I naturally have no trouble with such arts. I wouldn’t fear a mere backlash.”

“You only just reforged your Dao bones.”

Luo Qingyi was about to present her second reason, but looking into Wu Ruo’s still-calm eyes filled with distrust and doubt she hesitated. She knew Wu Ruo too well. Every micro-expression, every shift in tone, she could read like an open book. Even without seeing her face, just the sound of her voice told Luo Qingyi exactly what she was thinking.

Suddenly, she realized: this was the same clever, stubborn girl she had once known, the one she had forcibly fed Forget-Dust Powder, the one who had lost her memories yet still unmistakably herself.

Behind one lie was another, and another. In the end, she could hide nothing.

Everything she had done only served to push Wu Ruo further away, step by step, until she was out of sight, until there was no place left for her in Wu Ruo’s heart.

And then, all that remained was losing her again.

“It’s because.” Luo Qingyi paused, then finally steeled herself and gritted her teeth. “Because I was afraid that if you regained your Gu magic, you would leave me.”

“Why are you so certain I would leave you?” Wu Ruo raised an eyebrow and continued, “Is it because you’re afraid I’ll remember the past?”

“…”

Wu Ruo understood. She smiled faintly and added, “You’re afraid I’ll remember the past because I didn’t have a good life, is that it?”

“…”

“So, you knew I didn’t have a good life. Then, why did you?” Wu Ruo enunciated each word deliberately, “still seek me out, only to make me drink the Dust of Oblivion and erase everything?”

The moment the words “Dust of Oblivion” left Wu Ruo’s lips, Luo Qingyi’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. Her usually expressionless face finally cracked, her lips losing all color in the blink of an eye, pressing into a downward-curving line.

Wu Ruo gave a faint smile.

How could this be?

She had actually managed to see an emotion something akin to panic on the face of the ever-composed, decisive, and aloof Immortal Luo.

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