After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 45

“Mother Mommy, it hurts.”

Jinhua wiped her tears as she cried, her sobs loud and unrestrained like a three-year-old child. Tears fell in heavy drops, soaking the fine silk of her robes.

She didn’t even know her mother had already met a tragic end. Having just woken from unconsciousness, she instinctively cried out, hoping to receive her mother’s care her unconditional comfort and indulgence.

“Jinhua, your head is bleeding. Don’t move around, let me take a look.”

Wu Ruo stepped closer, but the moment she reached out, Jinhua slapped her hand away. The girl glared at her through tear-blurred eyes before curling into a ball and wailing again.

“I want Mommy.”

“Good Jinhua, your mother has other matters to attend to. She’s very busy, so she left first. Will you come with us instead?”

When she mentioned “coming with us,” Wu Ruo instinctively glanced at Luo Qingyi. The other woman was already watching her, neither stopping nor interfering, only giving a quiet nod. “If you’re willing to take her in, I can arrange a servant’s position for her at Luoxue Peak. That way, she’ll have a place to stay.”

Wu Ruo nodded. At first, she hadn’t thought about where Jinhua would go. But seeing the girl in such a pitiful state, she couldn’t just leave her after sparing her life. Reluctantly, she decided to take her in.

“No!” Jinhua shrieked. “Mommy didn’t tell me anything! I won’t go with you! I’ll wait here for her!”

Wu Ruo crouched down, speaking gently. “Good girl Jinhua, your mother left first. She’s an elder of Miaojiang and has very important duties. I’m also a sister from Miaojiang, sent by your mother to fetch you. Won’t you come with me?”

“No! Who even are you? You look so annoying! I don’t like you, I won’t go with you!”

Luo Qingyi had already turned away. She had always preferred quiet and was ill-suited to dealing with noisy, unreasonable children. But then, as if remembering something, she silently turned back and walked over to Wu Ruo, who stood there awkwardly.

“Jinhua,” Luo Qingyi’s expression darkened, her brows pressing down as she spoke coldly, “I am a villain, and right now, I’m in need of a young girl to use as a sacrifice for my sword cultivation. Especially the disobedient kind, the ones who throw tantrums when spoken to kindly. My sword.”

She drew a spare sword from her qiankun pouch, its icy glint flashing through the air as cold snowflakes drifted down around them. “Understand now?”

Terrified out of her wits, Jinhua scrambled behind Wu Ruo without another thought. “Save me!”

Wu Ruo nearly laughed at the sight of Luo Qingyi’s sword, which hadn’t even been fully unsheathed. The usually stern and aloof woman had actually come up with such a trick and she played the part convincingly, her presence genuinely intimidating.

A faint warmth stirred in Wu Ruo’s heart. Luo Qingyi, so proud and noble, a disciple of a prestigious righteous sect, untainted by worldly affairs today, she had actually said “I am a villain” with a straight face, willingly playing the role of the bad cop just to help. It moved her a little.

“Don’t worry, Jinhua,” Wu Ruo seized the moment. “As long as you behave and listen to me, she won’t be able to hurt you. Now, will you come with me?”

Jinhua, tears welling in her eyes, let out a couple of soft sobs. Clutching the bleeding wound on her head, she obediently hid behind Wu Ruo, still casting fearful glances at Luo Qingyi and shrinking further away.

“Alright!”

Seeing this, Luo Qingyi, holding her sword, took a few steps to the side, remaining within their line of sight but keeping a distance.

Only when Jinhua continued to sob quietly did Wu Ruo feel reassured. Though Jinhua still had the form of an adult, Wu Ruo led her along as if she were a child. “Let me see your wound, Ouch.”

As she parted Jinhua’s hair, her hand was immediately smeared with a large patch of blood. Luo Qingyi, who had deliberately kept her distance earlier, had somehow approached by then. “Her wound let me take a look.”

Luo Qingyi closed her eyes, forming a hand seal with two fingers. After a moment, she opened them again. “Mortal constitution.”

So, the body the Wishing Temple had reconstructed for Jinhua was actually that of a mortal.

Before Wu Ruo could ponder further, Luo Qingyi quickly interjected, “Since it’s a mortal constitution, the wound on her head needs immediate treatment. Daoist arts won’t work on mortals. We should go.”

“No need, I have this.”

Wu Ruo pulled out a few porcelain bottles from her Qiankun pouch and waved them in front of Luo Qingyi. “Bought from Baishang Street.”

These bottles were none other than the ones sold by the female alchemist who had defended her when the condescending male vendor tried to stop her. The pills inside appeared to be low-grade restorative elixirs, but their efficacy far surpassed their appearance. For cultivators, they replenished qi and nourished the body, while for mortals, they could revive anyone as long as they still had a breath left.

That alchemist was actually quite talented, but for some unknown reason, she was relegated to selling her wares cheaply in a remote corner of Baishang Street, unnoticed by most until the kind-hearted Wu Ruo happened upon her.

Wu Ruo had thought she was just indulging in the joy of spending money, but now, these pills had unexpectedly come in handy!

Delighted, Wu Ruo fed one to Jinhua, recalling the alchemist girl and making a mental note to seek her out next time she visited Baishang Street.

“It hurts, sob okay.”

Before long, the wound on Jinhua’s head healed. With her injury treated, her attitude toward Wu Ruo softened. She nestled in Wu Ruo’s arms, calling her “sister,” then peeked at Luo Qingyi, only to shrink back at the swordswoman’s icy glare.

“She’s so scary. Will she eat me? Sister, my mother told me to follow you, so you have to protect me.”

Wu Ruo burst into laughter. “She won’t. Just hold my hand don’t cling to me like this. Luo Qingyi, who are you glaring at?”

Luo Qingyi averted her gaze, feigning nonchalance. “No one.”

Under the moonlight, the three of them slowly made their way down the mountain. Jinhua walked slowly, timidly sticking close to Wu Ruo’s side, afraid to meet Luo Qingyi’s eyes. Luo Qingyi had no choice but to walk slightly ahead, pausing now and then to check if the other two were keeping up.

Sandwiched between them, Wu Ruo coaxed Jinhua like a child while glancing at Luo Qingyi, who walked ahead in silence. She called out Luo Qingyi’s name, and sure enough, the swordswoman immediately stopped and turned, her dark eyes shimmering with countless stars.

“Nothing. I just wanted to call your name.”

A gentle smile appeared on Luo Qingyi’s face. Seeing that Jinhua was already captivated by the snow-white paper crane, she walked back to Wu Ruo’s side and said, “I’m sorry. My original intention in bringing you to the Wish Temple was just to tell you about your clansmen. I never expected things to turn out like this.”

“There’s no need to apologize,” Wu Ruo replied. “I’m grateful.”

“But after giving you hope, I ended up giving you disappointment.”

“That’s not the case at all.” Wu Ruo smiled faintly, watching Jinhua chase the paper crane in the distance, and said softly, “I learned the truth behind the fall of Miaojiang, discovered that Lanting, Spring Grass, and a few other clansmen are still alive. I even found out about the demons and her.”

Wu Ruo pointed at Jinhua, who remained oblivious, clutching the paper crane and grinning foolishly at her. “Jinhua is also my clansman. She wasn’t the culprit either now, she’s just an innocent little girl. Coming here, I’ve gained so many unexpected things. Thank you.”

“That’s good to hear,” Luo Qingyi said. “What do you plan to do next? My mission to investigate the Wish Temple is complete. After I return to the sect to report, would you be willing to take me along again?”

Wu Ruo didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, she asked casually, “It’s already completed? Then where did this Wish Temple come from? What is its true nature, and why can it grant some people’s wishes?”

She omitted Jiang Qingbei’s near-death experience in the temple and the events that had unfolded among the three of them at the initial red temple. She simply looked at Luo Qingyi, waiting for her response.

“The Wish Temple likely originates from the ‘delusions’ of cultivators,” Luo Qingyi explained slowly. “Nourished by the essence and blood of powerful beings, it was imbued with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The exact process remains unknown, but its true nature has been uncovered.”

Under Wu Ruo’s calm gaze, Luo Qingyi continued, “The essence of the Wish Temple is actually the ‘exchange of fortune’ or rather, an unequal transaction. Make a small wish, the red temple, having absorbed the spiritual energy of the world, will help fulfill it. But the wisher must pay a far greater price in return.”

“You mean.” Wu Ruo pondered for a moment before understanding. “Jinhua was originally a conscious medicine puppet. Her wish was to have a human body. The price she paid was the loss of her own mind.”

She thought further and deduced, “Jin Ruyun’s wish was to exchange the lives of other clansmen for Jinhua’s revival. So, the ‘other clansmen’ became all the Miao people, leading to the fall of Miaojiang.”

“As for Jiang Qingbei’s wish.”

At this point, Wu Ruo realized something and glanced at Luo Qingyi, whose expression remained unchanged. She continued, “Her wish well, she wanted to sacrifice herself for the world? So the Wish Temple gave her a dream, with her life as the price. But I interrupted it.”

Luo Qingyi considered this and said, “Her wish was probably to gain recognition and attention from her elders. Since childhood, she had never received a single word of praise or acknowledgment from her mother. Later, after her master disappeared, she fixated on me as a substitute, seeking my attention but I wasn’t a good senior sister either.”

After a pause, she added, “If sacrifice was part of her wish, it makes sense. She believed she meant nothing to her mother and wanted to prove herself to light the future of the sect with her remaining life. But Sect Leader Jiang stopped her.”

Wu Ruo nodded, recalling that in Jiang Qingbei’s dream, just being praised by her mother had filled the little girl with overwhelming joy. Then she thought of the Jiang Qingbei she knew, the one who even in her sleep couldn’t help but express her resentment toward her mother.

But in truth, that proud and haughty young lady, with all her arrogance and domineering airs, simply wanted someone to pay a little more attention to her. She just wanted to be cradled in her mother’s hands, to become her pride.

A pang of melancholy struck Wu Ruo’s heart as she compared the vastly different parenting styles of Jin Ruyun and Sect Leader Jiang. If Sect Leader Jiang had shown even half the indulgence of Elder Jin, Jiang Qingbei wouldn’t have suffered for so many years nor would she have voiced her long-buried grievances in the Wishing Temple.

Wait! Everyone’s wishes had been fulfilled and explained.

Wu Ruo turned her gaze to Luo Qingyi, the corner of her lips lifting slightly. Her eyes were like a piercing sword blazing and direct.

She and Luo Qingyi. Before entering the temple, they had both seen those glaring words: “Those whose wishes have already been granted may not enter again.”

So then, what were their wishes? And what price had they paid for them?

Support