After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 48

The mountain path was a familiar trail, bathed in moonlight, reflecting deep and tranquil patches of light.

Wu Ruo had walked it once before, so retracing her steps felt effortless. She followed the familiar scenery step by step until she reached the spot where she had parted ways with Luo Qingyi.

Gazing at the mountain mist under the night sky, she noticed the area lacked tall trees, only short grasses and scattered golden wildflowers. She couldn’t help but recall the Harvest Festival in Miaojiang, when she had gathered flowers with Axiang and the others.

Back then, Jin Hua was among them too. Jin Hua had taken a liking to a large flower Axiang had picked and arrogantly demanded to trade for it.

Though Axiang usually seemed timid, that day she unexpectedly stood her ground, clutching the bright flower tightly to her chest and refusing to give it up.

How had it ended? Axiang had hidden the flower, dodging and evading, while Jin Hua, unwilling to back down, tried to snatch it. By the time the flower was brought out again, it had already been crushed.

Jin Hua curled her lip in disdain and stomped off, muttering, “It’s just a flower.” As for Axiang, she spent the entire afternoon dejected, eventually digging a small hole to carefully bury the wilted, withered blossom.

At the time, Wu Ruo had been filled with righteous indignation, determined to uphold justice. After learning what had happened, she confronted Jin Hua, and the two spent the whole day arguing. In the end, they were both punished by being made to stand for three days.

Times had changed, but the flowers remained the same.

Lost in thought, Wu Ruo unconsciously bent down. On the ground lay a golden mountain flower, vibrant and full, its petals layered one upon another. She gently plucked it and infused it with a bit of spiritual energy to preserve its most beautiful form.

For some reason, as she channeled her spiritual power, she unexpectedly sensed a resonance a fleeting, almost illusory pull, as if two kindred spirits using magic at the same time couldn’t help but feel each other’s presence.

The sensation lasted only a moment, vanishing as quickly as it came, leaving her wondering if it had been an illusion.

“Luo Qingyi?” Wu Ruo glanced back, but the surroundings were silent and deserted.

She lowered her head again, carefully selecting more bright wildflowers. Besides the one for Jin Hua, she gathered a bunch of small blue-and-white blossoms that, when spread out, resembled a scattering of delicate snow.

“This bouquet, I’ll bring it for Luo Qingyi.”

She deliberately spoke aloud, maintaining the spiritual energy in her palm. Yet, no matter how long she waited, she felt no trace of that familiar resonance.

Had it been an illusion after all?

Wu Ruo walked on quietly, the night breeze whispering softly. In her hands, she held the large golden flower and the cluster of blue-and-white wildflowers.

Occasionally, there were rustling sounds in the grass like crickets, like insects, yet more like an obsession in her heart, like footsteps that shouldn’t be there.

Luo Qingyi, hidden by a concealment spell, followed behind Wu Ruo. The rustling of the wind and grass masked her already light footsteps as she silently trailed the other woman, staying close to her shadow.

Wu Ruo walked with her head lowered, but suddenly, the figure ahead came to a halt. Standing still, she held the bouquet in one hand while raising the other to her forehead, as if shielding her eyes, and murmured to herself, “The moonlight is exceptionally bright tonight so beautiful.”

Luo Qingyi nearly bumped into the other’s back, stopping just short of making contact. She knew she should hurry back to create the illusion that she had returned to the guesthouse early.

But under the boundless moonlight, she couldn’t help herself she only wanted to follow Wu Ruo silently, accompanying the one she loved as they gazed upon the lonely moon together.

“Mmm, it’s beautiful,” Luo Qingyi murmured in her heart.

The evening breeze drifted gently along the path, and the moonlight flickered faintly through the shifting clouds. The two walked quietly along the path, their hearts in silent understanding.

Wu Ruo, carrying the flowers, made her way back to the original guesthouse.

As she reached the door, Luo Qingyi was waiting outside. Seeing her return, a soft smile appeared on Luo Qingyi’s usually expressionless face. “You’re back.”

Wu Ruo replied, “Mmm, I’m back.”

Luo Qingyi added, “I arranged a separate room for Jin Hua next door. She doesn’t seem tired at all. When I left the room earlier, I heard her crying again.”

“She’s only three years old, right? At that age, children tend to cry when separated from their mothers for too long.”

The two tacitly avoided mentioning the moonlit path, Lan Ting, or the so-called love gu that weighed heavily on their hearts.

“These are for you,” Wu Ruo said, handing over the small blue-and-white flowers. “I just thought they suited you.”

Luo Qingyi accepted them, plucked one from the bunch, and held it up to her hair as if to try it on. Then, as if feeling a little embarrassed, she quietly lowered her hand and glanced furtively at Wu Ruo only to meet her gaze directly.

“Give it to me,” Wu Ruo said, taking the small flower from her. She gently twirled a few strands of Luo Qingyi’s hair and tucked the flower behind her ear. “Like this.”

Luo Qingyi stood still, allowing Wu Ruo to place the flower in her hair. Then, she suddenly plucked another flower and tucked it into Wu Ruo’s hair as well. “Like this?”

“Yes. You’re quite clever,” Wu Ruo said with a smile, gazing at Luo Qingyi, who was so close. A surge of emotion rose in her heart, abrupt and overwhelming.

Luo Qingyi’s eyes were bright, and in them, she saw only herself. It was like a snow-capped mountain that had stood silent for years, its peaks eternally white, and she was the only visitor in the vast snowscape.

Yet, the reason she had the right to climb that mountain was not because the mountain opened itself only to her. It was because she was there under the influence of the love gu, a so-called “stowaway.”

It was rather ironic. And now, she didn’t need this kind of affection. Better to end it sooner rather than later.

“Take me to see Jin Hua,” Wu Ruo said.

Luo Qingyi hummed in agreement, and the two made their way to the top floor. As soon as they stepped into the hallway, they were met with deafening cries. Jin Hua, with the body of an adult but the mind of a three-year-old, wailed with a piercing, penetrating shrillness.

Luo Qingyi opened the door, intending to use her usual method to stop Jin Hua’s crying. “Hey. If you keep crying, I’ll take you to be used as ingredients for potions.”

Jin Hua remained unfazed and cried even louder. “Where’s my mommy? You’re a bad person! You took my mommy away hic to make potions, didn’t you? Take me away too!”

Luo Qingyi’s expression stiffened.

Seeing her flustered, Wu Ruo couldn’t help but chuckle. She stepped forward and brought out the prepared large golden flower. “Little Jin Hua, look what this is?”

Jinhua took it with delight, her childlike expression strikingly out of place on an adult woman’s face. She held it close, unable to put it down, but then blinked a few times and burst into tears again, even louder than before.

“Waaah! I want Mother! Mother once told me my name was this! I don’t want the flower, I want Mother!”

Wu Ruo was at a loss. She rummaged in her Qiankun pouch for a pretty dress, hoping to placate the other woman. But Luo Qingyi, as if possessed by a child herself, stepped in front of Jinhua. “If you don’t want the gift, she kindly gave you, I’ll take it.”

Jinhua froze. “Ah!”

Luo Qingyi: “If you don’t want it, give it to me.”

Jinhua: “I want it! I want it! Don’t you dare snatch it!”

Wu Ruo stood there dumbfounded, her hand still in the pouch, frozen mid-action.

She stared blankly as the three-year-old Jinhua and the five-year-old Luo Qingyi fought over the flower. Not content with monopolizing the large golden blossom, Jinhua snatched the small blue flower from Luo Qingyi’s hair, crumpled it in her hand, and crushed it within moments.

“This one isn’t as fragrant as mine!” Jinhua declared haughtily. “My flower is the most fragrant! Mother said this kind of flower suits me best!”

Though Luo Qingyi’s face was full of impatience, she still managed to coax the child gently. “Mm, it’s not as fragrant as yours. So, can you be quiet for a while?”

Surprisingly, Jinhua did quiet down. She lay back on the bed, pulled up the small blanket, closed her eyes, and soon began to snore softly, fast asleep.

“Let’s go back.” Luo Qingyi turned around, then seemed to recall something. She picked up a tiny piece of trash from the floor but held it carefully in her hand as if it were a treasure, murmuring softly, “Our room is next door.”

Suddenly, Wu Ruo realized what that piece of “trash” was.

It was the small blue flower she had earlier pinned in Luo Qingyi’s hair, the one Jinhua had torn off and crushed.

“Luo Qingyi,” Wu Ruo said.

As the other woman turned, Wu Ruo, without thinking, plucked a small blue flower from the bouquet Luo Qingyi was still holding and carefully, deliberately, pinned it back into her hair.

She didn’t know why she did it, nor why she had called her name. In that moment, she simply wanted to pin a flower for her once more.

“Alright, let’s go back.”

Luo Qingyi’s eyes flickered, as if she wanted to say something, but no words came out.

“How do you plan to settle Jinhua?”

After returning to their room, neither of them went to sleep. As cultivators, they could absorb the surrounding spiritual energy, so staying awake for days and nights had no effect. Luo Qingyi sat at the desk, organizing a few scrolls, then suddenly looked up and asked.

“She’s a mortal now. Taking her back to Zhiyuan Immortal Sect is definitely not appropriate,” Wu Ruo replied. “It would be better to send her to the mortal realm and give Xiao Yu’er another friend. By the way, how did you meet Xiao Yu’er?”

“Through you. In the past, you helped her family a lot and even stayed overnight at their home. Later, I followed the resonance of your life bound sword to find you and got to know Xiao Yu’er as well.”

“What did I do back then? The mother and daughter have been waiting for me.”

“Back then, Yu’er’s mother was bedridden with illness. You found spiritual medicine for her and helped her recover. Besides that, you served as Yu’er’s teacher, teaching her to read and write, a privilege usually reserved for the children of officials in the mortal realm.”

“I see.” Wu Ruo nodded, her curiosity piqued about her own past. The logic didn’t add up, how could someone like her, notorious in the Zhiyuan Immortal Sect, end up in the mortal realm and become the savior of a family?

But she couldn’t be bothered to dig into the reasons. If the people involved, Yu’er and her mother, said it happened, then it happened. She didn’t care.

What she did care about was something else.

After the conversation lulled, noticing Luo Qingyi still staring at her with a probing look, Wu Ruo waved a hand dismissively. “Alright, you should rest too. I’m going to the outhouse.”

Clutching a small porcelain vial in her palm, she carefully stored the newly acquired brown snake and green toad in her Qiankun pouch. Once everything was settled, she closed her eyes gently, focusing her spiritual energy at her fingertips, then made a sharp, forceful cut!

A deep gash appeared on her exposed wrist. Wu Ruo pressed lightly on the wound, slowly squeezing out crimson blood.

The primary ingredient for crafting the antidote to the love gu was the blood of the one who cast the gu.

Though she had forgotten how she originally concocted the love gu, her instincts remained. Fragmented phrases from old, tattered texts flashed through her mind, detailing the methods for creating both the love gu and its corresponding antidote.

As she squeezed out the blood, Wu Ruo muttered to herself, “Not sure if I can pull this off, but the steps should be right. First, fresh blood.”

She didn’t get to finish.

A sharp, imposing aura appeared at the outhouse door, and without hesitation, the intruder burst in. A gust of fierce wind shattered the spiritual blade in Wu Ruo’s hand, and a strong grip clamped down on her wrist!

“Who’s there?” Wu Ruo cried out, but upon seeing the person’s face, she quickly calmed down, letting out a resigned, cold laugh.

Luo Qingyi’s expression was grim, her lips pressed into a thin line. Her gaze held a mix of anger and unmistakable panic.

Seeing the deep red gash on the pale wrist, blood still flowing steadily, Luo Qingyi’s eyes darkened. Her deep pupils fixed on Wu Ruo.

A thousand words condensed into one sentence. Less a command, more a plea.

“Ah Ruo, don’t do this.”

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