After My Death, the Female Lead Breaks the Heartless Path - Chapter 25

“Ah!”

Everyone turned to look. Xu Jingqiu frowned slightly, silently drew an iron rod from her storage ring, activated her ability to transform it into a rifle, loaded it, and warily gazed toward the source of the scream.

A long sword had pierced straight through a cultivator, blood splattering far and wide, staining the cultivator standing behind who held the sword.

The cultivator fell to the ground with a thud but did not die immediately. Instead, he stared incredulously at his former friend, the one holding the sword. “You, why gah?!”

The sword plunged down again without mercy. The friend wore a deranged smile on his face, laughing maniacally as he stabbed, shouting wildly, “Kill you! If I kill you, all your belongings will be mine! Hahahahaha! Die!”

Ai Yanran turned pale as she looked in that direction, then nodded to a Penglai cultivator standing beside her, signaling him to stop this madness.

The Penglai cultivator nodded, grabbed his weapon, stepped forward, and shoved the frenzied cultivator away. “Hey! Have you lost your mind?”

The frenzied cultivator seemed caught off guard by the push, staggering back a few steps, still looking dazed. Suddenly, he calmed down. The Penglai cultivator found it baffling, but his peripheral vision caught sight of the dead cultivator’s storage ring.

He remembered that this cultivator had reaped many rewards from the Misty Forest before his death. Since he was the one who stepped in to stop the chaos, surely it wouldn’t be a problem to take the ring as compensation, right?

Thinking this, he reached for the storage ring. Unexpectedly, the moment his hand touched it, the dead cultivator stirred, lunging toward him. “That’s mine! Don’t take it! It’s mine!”

“Bang!”

A bullet pierced through the cultivator’s head. It wasn’t until the cultivator fell backward that the Penglai cultivator snapped out of it, trembling as he wiped the blood from his face, scrambling back to Ai Yanran’s side.

Everything happened too quickly, ending before anyone could react.

Xu Jingqiu ejected the empty magazine, and the rifle in her hand reverted to its original form. She muttered under her breath, “I think I need to reconsider what that guy meant by ‘loving peace.'”

Could this be called “loving peace”? People had gone insane! Still, she hadn’t expected such consequences from taking things from the forest.

“Both of them took items from the Misty Forest earlier,” Xu Jingqiu explained. “The more they took, the more they were affected by illusions. Over time, they went mad. Aside from them, has anyone else taken anything?”

Naturally, no one answered, though a few people guiltily hid their hands behind their backs, unsure what they were up to.

Xu Jingqiu paid it no mind. Over there, Yin Ruolan and Wen Banxia had already inspected all the demons to ensure no one had taken anything, so she didn’t bring it up again.

They continued forward, but no one could find a way out. They had no choice but to follow Xu Jingqiu, who remained calm and composed. However, it wasn’t long before another cultivator went mad and started killing.

This time, there was no need for Xu Jingqiu to intervene. The other cultivators subdued the person and checked her storage ring, only to find it completely empty.

But in reality, she had exposed the truth. After her words, many frightened people frantically discarded the items they had picked up. However, since those items were fake to begin with, what good would throwing them away do? “You, why didn’t you say earlier that taking these things would lead to this?”

The injured female cultivator angrily grabbed Xu Jingqiu by the collar, her fury mixed with fear. “Why didn’t you warn us sooner? You clearly knew it wasn’t a dream, didn’t you? Why are we still like this even after discarding them?”

Xu Jingqiu raised a hand to stop Yin Ruolan and Wen Banxia, then sneered coldly at the female cultivator. “Didn’t I warn all of you long ago? It seems no one believed me, though.”

“These were your own choices, and the consequences are yours to bear.”

“You!” The female cultivator, enraged, raised her hand to strike but was intimidated by Xu Jingqiu’s icy glare.

To her, those eyes were not human. The originally emotionless golden irises now seemed even more chilling, with a faint red glow flickering within. Unlike the demon lord’s crimson gaze, there was a trace of madness and malevolence in them.

Instinctively, the female cultivator released her grip and stepped back. Xu Jingqiu smoothed her clothes, her eyes returning to normal, then walked over to Yin Ruolan. “Let’s go.”

Yin Ruolan glanced at her with concern, confirming that Xu Jingqiu was fine before nodding. “Mm.”

The demon clansmen naturally followed their lord and lady closely, while those who had heeded the warning and refrained from touching the secret realm’s items quietly trailed behind after all, Xu Jingqiu was the only one who could lead them out.

Behind them, chaos erupted as people began attacking one another. The situation grew increasingly turbulent until Yin Ruolan and Wen Banxia intervened to suppress the unrest. Throughout it all, Ai Yanran remained surprisingly quiet, causing no further trouble. She merely watched them with a resentful glare, which neither of them paid any mind.

Ai Yanran had lost the Heavenly Dao System by then. The last fragment of the Heavenly Dao was in the hands of the Celestial Venerable of Penglai, so they couldn’t deal with her just yet, they needed to use her to lure out the Celestial Venerable.

Gradually, Xu Jingqiu spotted a glimmer of light ahead in the mist. Since that person had mentioned that the direction of the light was the exit, she had been guiding everyone toward its brightest point.

More and more people succumbed to madness, trapped in illusions. Nearly all the demons joined the fight. Xu Jingqiu sighed, realizing the number of affected individuals exceeded her expectations. Fortunately, they had reached the end.

She pointed toward the light. “The exit is there.”

Upon hearing this, the cultivators surged forward frantically. Xu Jingqiu, Yin Ruolan, and Wen Banxia stayed behind to cover their retreat, only leaving after all the demons had exited.

Outside lay a tranquil world, filled with rare spiritual herbs seldom seen in the mortal realm. Butterflies fluttered among them, and small, unenlightened animals peeked out at the sudden strangers before scurrying away in alarm.

However, none of the human cultivators were present here, only the demons had arrived, aside from Xu Jingqiu and her two companions.

“My Lord, what is this?” one demon cautiously approached Yin Ruolan to ask.

Yin Ruolan glanced back in the direction they had come from. The forest had vanished, replaced by an unobstructed view of grassland. Straining her eyes to look further ahead, she could only make out a few scattered shrubs. Recalling Xu Jingqiu’s familiarity with the place, Yin Ruolan asked, “Xiao Qiu, do you know what’s going on here?”

“We’ve exited the middle layer of the secret realm and arrived at its core. Those human cultivators who didn’t take the illusory treasures from the middle layer were directly teleported to the entrance, with their relevant memories erased,” Xu Jingqiu explained. “The entire middle layer is constructed from materialized illusions. Those who were tempted by the realm’s suggestions and took the treasures would be trapped indefinitely, while those who didn’t were simply expelled.”

Wen Banxia nodded in understanding. “No wonder. That explains why those people lost control. But why didn’t you explain it clearly at the time? I noticed a few demonic warriors almost fell for it too. If not for your golden threads pulling them back, it would’ve been bad. Were there restrictions?”

Xu Jingqiu thought for a moment. “Probably because if I had spoken, the security would have escalated to the highest level, and none of us would have been able to leave. Moreover, this place wasn’t built for training, nor is it some fallen expert’s legacy waiting to be discovered. This secret realm has only one purpose to block anyone trying to enter, by any means necessary and at any cost. That’s the operating logic here.”

The demonic cultivators: …

Sweating profusely now. Thank you for not saying anything earlier.

“Should we continue forward now? What about the things here?”

Xu Jingqiu: “Of course we’re moving on. The spiritual herbs here are real, but they likely have an owner. Ordinary spiritual herbs don’t grow in such vast, uniform patches this is clearly carefully cultivated.”

Yin Ruolan glanced at the large field of Memory-Seeking Grass and nodded in agreement. These herbs typically required very specific growing conditions and would rarely thrive in such abundance, each plant lush and healthy.

Maybe we can ask the local residents if we can trade for some later, she thought. I wonder if Xiao Qiu knows them, she seems quite familiar with this place.

After a moment’s contemplation, Yin Ruolan asked, “Are there people living here? Xiao Qiu, you seem to know this place well?”

“I currently hold control over this secret realm, so I’ve familiarized myself with it,” Xu Jingqiu explained. “Back in the outer layer, I studied the layout. This place has three layers. The first layer is mostly mechanical rooms designed to separate entrants into individual chambers filled with traps. The second layer is the illusion we just passed through this layer eliminates almost everyone. It’s only because I now have control that I guided us here.”

“As for what lies ahead,” Xu Jingqiu looked forward and shook her head, “I don’t know. The records didn’t mention it, and it seems to have been deliberately erased. However, there was one sentence left behind: ‘TA wants us to go deeper.'”

Yin Ruolan pondered for a moment before making a decision. “Then let’s continue forward. We’ve come this far, we’re bound to discover something eventually.”

The demon tribe let out a collective shout, first resting briefly to recover their strength before pressing onward. However, the shrubbery around them seemed unnaturally conspicuous so much so that it might as well have had the word “trap” written all over it.

Yin Ruolan pondered for a moment before waving her hand to signal the advance. Everyone drew their weapons. Just as they stepped into the center of the thicket, figures or rather, creatures armed with stone spears burst out from the surrounding bushes, aiming their weapons at them.

“Who are you?” demanded the wolf-headed leader, who seemed to be the captain, stepping forward with his stone spear. The contrast between his crude weapon and the demonic sword in Yin Ruolan’s hand was stark.

Even so, the werewolf did not retreat, standing firm at the forefront.

These were all members of the demon beast tribe, the first time they had encountered so many at once. Given the demon beasts’ renowned expertise in cultivating medicinal herbs, Yin Ruolan quickly deduced who might be residing here.

Before she could speak, Xu Jingqiu, who had been thoroughly shielded behind her, curiously peeked out for a look. With just that one glance, the werewolf was so shocked that he dropped his weapon, staring at Xu Jingqiu in stunned disbelief.

Xu Jingqiu: ? What’s going on?

Yin Ruolan frowned slightly, glancing from the werewolf to the oblivious Xu Jingqiu, and suddenly formed an absurd suspicion.

As if confirming her speculation, the werewolf dropped to his knees before Xu Jingqiu and began to worship her: “Divine One!”

“It’s the Divine One! The Divine One has returned!”

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