After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 42

The woman’s heart-wrenching wails lingered in the air like the mournful cries of a desolate ape, refusing to fade away.

“Kill me! Witch Envoy, Kill me! I am guilty, I am beyond redemption, I deserve to die ten thousand times, I am the eternal sinner of Miaojiang. But please, spare my child. She is innocent!”

Jin Ruyun fell to her knees with a thud, tears blurring her vision as they dripped onto the ground, soaking the worn-out floor tiles.

From Wu Ruo’s vantage point, she could see that the once jet-black hair atop the woman’s head was now overgrown like weeds, streaked with countless unruly white strands.

Elder Jin had always been a fastidious woman every strand of her hair meticulously oiled to a glossy sheen, dyed a youthful and vibrant black. But now, the woman before her was gray-haired, her clothes disheveled, her knees covered in grime, looking utterly aged and decrepit.

“Please! Little Jinhua is innocent. Let her go. She can live now. Please, for the sake of the fact that she too was harmed by the demonic cultivators, spare her.”

Wu Ruo stood rooted to the spot, fists clenched. She glared at Jin Ruyun with fury, but the woman no longer lifted her head. Instead, she remained on her knees, her forehead pressed heavily against the ground, streaks of crimson blood tracing down her withered cheeks. Her aged eyes had lost all light.

It was as if her soul had fled she merely repeated her plea over and over: “Spare my child.”

The dull, heavy thuds of her forehead striking the ground echoed in Wu Ruo’s ears, again and again.

And with each impact, it struck Wu Ruo’s heart as well, over and over, stirring up dust and mire within her.

She hated Jinhua. She disliked Jin Ruyun. She loathed the sinner who had selfishly plunged all of Miaojiang into peril.

But, she couldn’t deny that she might have felt a twinge of envy toward Jinhua for having a mother who would put her daughter above all else, who would sacrifice everything for her child.

Wu Ruo took a deep breath and spoke slowly, her voice measured. “Tell me everything in detail.”

Luo Qingyi remained behind the tree, her consciousness detached, observing everything from above. Seeing Jin Ruyun’s unstable state, she murmured an incantation, quietly sealing off the surrounding space to prevent outsiders from overhearing.

Yet she still worried for Wu Ruo. A wisp of spiritual energy lingered at her fingertips, ready to intervene if Wu Ruo lost control of her emotions, ensuring no further complications arose.

But just as her anxiety peaked, Wu Ruo’s sharp aura dissipated. Instead, she remained calm, her emotions unreadable.

She had overthought it. Her A’Ruo had always been strong-willed, knowing when to act and when to hold back for the greater good.

Just like back then when she had undone the love curse for her under such circumstances.

A slow, icy drizzle of snowflakes drifted through the air tiny and fragile, melting the moment they touched the earth. Only occasionally could a few scattered flakes be glimpsed before vanishing from sight.

A cold flake landed on Wu Ruo’s arm. Without turning, she knew it was Luo Qingyi silently standing guard, using spatial-sealing magic to ensure she could extract crucial information undisturbed.

Generously, she mentally added a few points in Luo Qingyi’s favor before adopting the demeanor of a wrathful spirit, bellowing at Jin Ruyun: “Speak!”

“I said, I said My Jin Hua was supposed to be an exchange student at a cultivation sect. But who would have thought she was killed by a demonic cultivator on her way home, right at the gates of our Miao village. When I heard the news, I went mad my child.”

“That doesn’t justify you bringing demonic cultivators here,” Wu Ruo said coldly. “We all grieve for Jin Hua’s tragic death, but do you really want everyone to die for her?”

“Yes!” Jin Ruyun’s voice suddenly rose, her head jerking up, eyes bloodshot. “My child is dead, why should they still live? Especially your favorite disciple, Wu Ruo she even became the Holy Maiden! If my Jin Hua hadn’t died, the Holy Maiden should have been her!”

“Why, why? My child suffered so much, the demonic cultivator drained all her blood, how much pain she must have endured. I wanted her back, I wanted to save her! But I couldn’t, I’m a useless mother, I couldn’t even make my daughter’s body stand up again! So there was a wishing temple at the foot of the mountain, and I went there.”

“A wishing temple?”

Wu Ruo glanced up at the brick-red temple gate, then asked, “So you made a wish then? What did you wish for?”

Jin Ruyun had calmed somewhat, though tears still streamed down her face. “I wished for someone to help me, to bring my daughter back to life.”

“Liar.”

Wu Ruo stared intently at the woman’s face, not missing a single microexpression. “That wasn’t your wish.”

Jin Ruyun looked up in panic, tears suddenly gushing as she screamed, “No! Believe me, please believe me. I’m just a mother, I only wanted my daughter back!”

“If you only wanted Jin Hua revived you wouldn’t have wished for ‘someone’ to help you in a temple of great power. You would have prayed to the heavens, to the temple god, not to people. Unless.” Wu Ruo’s tone turned mocking, “you were in the Miao village, seeing other children alive, and it pained you. You grew mad, thinking, why did it have to be Jin Hua who died, not someone else? So your wish was to trade the lives of other Miao children for Jin Hua’s revival, wasn’t it?”

The words struck Jin Ruyun like a thunderbolt. She froze, lips trembling, unable to utter a word in rebuttal.

Her hands shook violently before slowly covering her face, smearing tears and blood from her forehead into a wretched mess.

“Your wish came true. ‘Someone’ yes, the Right Envoy you spoke of agreed. She promised to help you destroy the Miao village, to let you see your child again. In exchange, you led the demonic cultivators into our defenseless home, didn’t you?”

Wu Ruo stomped her foot beside the woman. She had meant to crush Jin Ruyun’s skull, but at the last moment, her foot veered slightly.

Jin Ruyun finally lost all control, slamming her forehead against the stone bricks until blood and tears flowed freely.

“Waaah! I never thought. I truly never thought. I just occasionally wondered, occasionally had the thought, ‘Why couldn’t she die instead of my daughter?’ I never wanted it to come true. But long after I made that wish, so long that I thought this temple was a scam someone really came to me.”

“So I just. I couldn’t help it. I wanted so badly to see my daughter again.”

Jin Ruyun knelt on the ground, her forehead smashing against the floor until it was covered in dark red bloodstains. The blood flowed along the tiles into the cracks, quickly licked up by ants on the ground, vanishing in moments.

Wu Ruo’s chest heaved violently as she pieced together the truth behind the fall of Miaojiang. Her fists clenched tightly, loosening several times only to tighten again immediately, her anger burning white-hot.

Cold snowflakes landed on her, gently cooling the fury in her heart. She could feel Luo Qingyi transmitting a sliver of calmness to her, a steadfastness that reminded her of her original purpose, supporting her to keep moving forward.

“Don’t worry,” she thought to herself, “I can do this.”

In her consciousness, she heard Luo Qingyi’s echo: “Good. Her mind is unstable now strike while the iron is hot. If we miss this chance, we might never learn the truth.”

Wu Ruo acknowledged silently in her heart before turning her gaze back to Jin Ruyun kneeling on the ground. She stamped her foot and asked, “Then, is there anyone from Miaojiang still alive?”

“Yes! Chuncao. She escaped with a few clansmen. She must still be alive that girl was always clever, she definitely wouldn’t die. Why did my child have to suffer such a fate.”

Wu Ruo sucked in a sharp breath, forcing down her overwhelming emotions as she enunciated each word carefully: “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t gone anywhere these years, I don’t know anything. The Right Envoy only turned my daughter into a medicine puppet so she could stay with me, but she’s not truly alive. I finally got a chance to sneak out and bring her here to make a wish, to restore her to a living person. This temple must work, it must answer prayers!”

“What she’s saying is likely true.”

Luo Qingyi had emerged from behind the tree at some point, her face covered by a veil that obscured her features.

Jin Ruyun stared at the two women in shock, suddenly realizing something. Just as she was about to scream, Luo Qingyi snapped off a tree branch and pointed it at her throat: “Besides Chuncao, who else is alive?”

The branch was sharp as a blade, already leaving a glaring scratch on the woman’s neck. Jin Ruyun trembled. “I don’t know, I don’t know! Ah!”

Jin Ruyun shook even more violently, her entire body seeming to lose its soul. Her eyes brimmed with terror, as if recalling the most painful memories.

Seeing this, Luo Qingyi stopped pressing her and slowly lowered the branch. Her ears twitched slightly as she said, “Alright, someone’s coming from inside.”

The temple door creaked open, and a figure suddenly stepped out, though their footsteps sounded strange uneven, unlike a normal person’s gait.

Wu Ruo and Jin Ruyun turned to look simultaneously. A woman with a single braid appeared before them, her clothes neat and made of fine new fabric, her hair adorned with beautiful silver ornaments. Clearly, her mother had dressed her impeccably.

Wu Ruo stared in astonishment at the woman before her. Eighteen years had passed since their last meeting, and the other’s appearance had changed greatly, though traces of her former features remained. She had grown much thinner, making it difficult to recognize her at first glance this was Jin Hua, the classmate she had once despised most in the Miao village.

“My precious let Mama hold you. My dear, you’ve finally.”

Jin Ruyun didn’t even bother to wipe the blood from her forehead. She scrambled up in an instant and threw her arms around her newly reborn daughter. But after holding her for a moment, she sensed something was wrong.

“My precious you.”

Jin Hua remained motionless in her embrace, her eyes unblinking, like a lifeless doll being held. Her vacant gaze stared straight ahead.

Wu Ruo frowned, puzzled. “Jin Hua?”

The woman still didn’t respond, merely shrinking silently in her mother’s arms neither moving nor speaking.

“…” Luo Qingyi observed for a moment before shaking her head. “Severed soul, devoid of spirit and intellect this is the price she paid for wishing to be reborn.”

“What?” Jin Ruyun seemed to age ten years in an instant. She released her daughter abruptly, but the girl remained still and unresponsive, standing there blankly like a three-year-old child.

After a long silence, Jin Hua finally spoke her first words, halting and stumbling like a toddler just learning to speak: “M-mother.”

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