After My Faked Death Failed, My Ex-Wife Came Chasing After Me - Chapter 45

Lu Ting’an: This is getting more exhausting by the day.

Lu Ting’an was startled and suddenly didn’t dare to make a sound. Her gaze shifted downward, landing on Lin Zheng’s arm, which was gushing blood. The snowy-white disciple uniform was already stained red across half of its surface. She hurriedly tore a strip of cloth from her sleeve and mouthed to her, making no sound: “I’ll help you.”

Lin Zheng remained silent, obediently extending her hand. Having no experience in bandaging, Lu Ting’an struggled for a long time, eventually wrapping it like a zongzi. She could only look at her with an apologetic expression.

Lin Zheng didn’t mind at all. Holding Suiyue (Shattered Moon), she stepped forward slowly, placed two fingers to her lips, and whispered a few words. A pale purple barrier, shimmering with the shape of a nine-tailed fox, rose slowly from beneath the feet of the disciples, enveloping everyone.

Only then did Lin Zheng speak aloud, “We can talk now.”

Chen Yunxiao frowned, looking around. “The way these streets look… it resembles Tianbao City in the Ghost Market.”

Upon hearing this, someone immediately became terrified and broke down, “Tianbao City? Isn’t that the territory of demons? It’s over, it’s all over! It must be because Sect Leader Song treats the demon disciples poorly in the sect, and now they’re seeking revenge!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the disciples of Danhe Jujinxiao (Danhe Gathering Immortals Bridge) exploded in anger. They jumped up and down, pointing at him and cursing, “What nonsense are you talking about? Our Sect Leader is the most benevolent man in the three realms! He treats the demon disciples with nothing but courtesy and has never struck or scolded them. How could you blame him?”

“Heh.”

A sneer came from the nearby Hexi Wujiazhai (Hexi Wu Family Village) disciples, tinged with sarcasm. “The most benevolent man in the three realms? Not necessarily. I’ve heard that Sect Leader Song never permitted those demon disciples to enter the inner sect; many serve as slaves and maids within Danhe Jujinxiao. Otherwise, why is there not a single sign of them at this Grand Hero Assembly?”

The disciples of Shiya Yeyue (Cliff Night Moon Pool) also spoke up at the “opportune” moment: “Indeed, hearing this brother speak, I can’t help but wonder. Sect Leader Song claims to teach all without discrimination, yet among the many disciples participating in the Grand Hero Assembly, there isn’t a single one of demon origin. So, where exactly did all those demon disciples go after being sent to Danhe Jujinxiao for ‘cultivation’?”

“Absolute lies! You’re slandering him!” The Danhe Jujinxiao disciples were furious, but being pointed at by everyone, they were isolated. Their leader glanced at Lin Zheng, who stood not far away with her hands behind her back. An idea struck him, and he immediately redirected the spearhead: “Instead of suspecting our Sect Leader, why not suspect the eldest disciple of Baiyun Luyingmen (White Cloud Deer Reflection Gate)? After all, among us, she is the only one of the demon race. What if she has some wicked schemes…”

Seeing him use such shameless words to deflect blame for Danhe Jujinxiao, Lu Ting’an couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She sneered, “Why are you snapping at everyone in your panic? Back in the illusion, if it wasn’t for Lin Zheng, you would have died a hundred times over.”

The man was stifled and snorted softly, turning his head away with a darkened expression.

“Zihua, watch your words.” A weak voice suddenly came from behind him. Lu Ting’an was startled and followed the sound. She saw the Danhe Jujinxiao disciples surrounding a young master. He was as handsome as jade, with red lips, white teeth, and a cinnabar mole between his brows. He looked scholarly, but he seemed to have been injured in the previous illusion; he was clutching his chest, his breath slightly hurried. He said to Lin Zheng apologetically, “Miss Lin, I apologize to you on his behalf.”

Lin Zheng nodded slightly and said coldly, “It’s no matter.”

Lu Ting’an was stunned. She quietly tugged on Lin Zheng’s sleeve and whispered, “Who is this? I don’t seem to have any impression of him.”

Lin Zheng glanced at her and said calmly, “Sect Leader Song’s son, Song Jiaming.”

Lu Ting’an nodded in realization. She thought to herself: At least he has a bit of a conscience—a good sprout among the bad bamboo of Danhe Jujinxiao.

Lin Zheng looked at the fog growing thicker in the distance. Her expression was grave. She turned to the others and said, “Everyone, although I don’t know why we suddenly ended up here, if we want to escape, we cannot sit and wait for death. The Ghost Market is demon territory; our transmission talismans won’t work here, so we cannot notify the Sect Leaders for reinforcements. It’s better to enter Tianbao City now; perhaps we can find a way out.”

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement. Supporting each other, they began to grope their way forward through the thick mist.

Looking at the dead-silent shops around them, Lu Ting’an instinctively pressed closer to Lin Zheng and whispered, “Lin Zheng… I’m a little scared.”

Lin Zheng paused for a moment. After a brief hesitation, she gently took Lu Ting’an’s hand and said, “Stay close to me.”

“Jie jie jie—”

Before the words had finished, a burst of hair-raising, eerie laughter suddenly rang out in the air, echoing through the mist. Immediately following were several crisp “bang bang” sounds, as if something had darted past in the shadows.

Terrified screams suddenly erupted from the crowd—

“Something just brushed past my calf!”

“Me too! Someone just tapped my shoulder!”

“Ouch! Something pulled my hair!”

“Ahhh! It’s back!”

Hearing their cries one after another, Lu Ting’an shrank her neck in fear. She quickly summoned Qieman (Wait a Moment) and held it in her hand, her heart drumming like a mallet. “This is too eerie. Why don’t we just back out?”

There was no answer from Lin Zheng’s side—only a deathly silence.

Lu Ting’an grew suspicious. She instinctively looked back at the hand holding hers, but the mist had become so dense that she could only see a blurred face, impossible to recognize. She called out softly, “Lin Zheng? What’s wrong?”

Suddenly, less than two meters away from her, a faint blue light flickered.

It was the sword light of Suiyue.

Lu Ting’an’s heart tightened instantly, leaping into her throat. If the person over there was Lin Zheng, then who was the person holding her hand right now?

“Mamma mia—!”

She violently threw off the hand and turned to flee, but as soon as she turned, she crashed directly into the chest of a person in black. Before she could even call out Lin Zheng’s name, her vision went black, and she lost consciousness.

“Lu Ting’an?”

Lin Zheng’s heart sank, sensing something was terribly wrong. She lunged with her sword toward the direction where Lu Ting’an had just spoken. Surprisingly, the shadow caught the tip of the blade with two fingers. In the vibration of spiritual power, she was forced back half a step.

She didn’t care about anything else. Pinching a sword formula, she lunged again, engaging the black-clad figure in combat. Her sword movements were sharp and swift, every strike aimed to kill. Finally, she heard a muffled groan from the opponent. She struck him heavily in the chest with a palm, sending him reeling and spitting blood. Seeing the situation was unfavorable, the figure immediately vanished into the thick mist.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Lin Zheng was about to give chase when several more shrill screams came from behind her—

“Ah! It hurts!”

“Help!”

In an instant, the area was in total chaos. The sound of clashing blades, the angry curses of disciples, and the rustling sounds from the shadows intertwined, making one’s heart tremble with fear.

“Don’t panic! Hold your ground!”

Lin Zheng was anxious, realizing they had fallen into a trap. While demons might find it hard to face cultivators head-on, ambushing from the shadows was always their specialty.

After a short while, the clamor gradually died down, and the eerie mist dissipated slightly. Lin Zheng circulated her power to protect her heart. When she looked again, she couldn’t help but gasp.

The ground was scattered with spots of bright red blood, and the disciples who had entered Tianbao City with her had all disappeared.

An unknown amount of time passed…

Lu Ting’an felt her whole body burning as if being roasted by fire. Her forehead was covered in a dense layer of cold sweat. She forced her eyelids open and looked down, nearly losing her soul in fright.

Beneath her was a vat of boiling oil. The fire in the stove was burning fiercely, and the surface of the oil was bubbling and churning.

She froze on the spot, her mind going blank.

Wait, was she… dead? Was this the Eighteen Levels of Hell?

Lu Ting’an refused to give up and forced herself to look twice more. Confirming it was indeed a bubbling oil vat, her rationality instantly collapsed, and she couldn’t help but howl toward the sky.

Heavens! What a pity that a “five-good youth” like her, just because the system forced her to play a villainous cannon fodder for a few days, was now going to the underworld to climb mountains of blades and enter vats of oil? No matter how she thought about it, the punishment didn’t fit the crime!

As she was breaking down, she caught a glimpse of several familiar figures tied up with Immortal-Binding Locks on the ground. They were the same immortal disciples who had participated in the Grand Hero Assembly with her.

However, their current situations were not good. Some, like her, were suspended over boiling oil vats; some had their clothes stripped and were tied to cloud ladders covered in blades, their backs a bloody mess; others were wrapped in layers of something resembling spider silk, hanging upside down in mid-air, their fate unknown.

Lu Ting’an finally realized something was wrong. She looked up and discovered they were inside the belly of a mountain. A crescent moon hung in the sky above, its cold, clear light pouring down, reflecting off the jagged, mottled mountain walls like crouching ghosts.

This wasn’t the underworld; this was a demon’s den!

At this moment, the heavy blue stone door opposite Lu Ting’an slowly cracked open a sliver, then was pushed open bit by bit. Several black-clad men walked toward her. The leader was sitting in a wheelchair, his face dark and his eyes filled with a chilling coldness.

Once she saw his face clearly, Lu Ting’an was greatly shocked and said, “You are… Cui Daoyan?”

Cui Daoyan raised his eyes, glanced at Lu Ting’an, bowed to her, and smiled, “Miss Lu, I trust you have been well?”

Lu Ting’an could hardly believe it. Her gaze swept over the people beside him, seeing that each had a strange appearance and a hideous face; she estimated they were all of the demon race. Her lips trembled, and her voice was tight. “So… it really was you who killed Old Man Cui. Back at Shiya Yeyue, when Lin Zheng and I tested you like that, you were able to remain unruffled. You truly are a master.”

Hearing this, Cui Daoyan was slightly stunned, then seemed to remember something. A sneer curled his lips. “Not quite. But if you wish to think so, it’s no matter. After all, I won’t argue with a dying person.”

Lu Ting’an’s heart tightened instantly. She suppressed the prickling numbness crawling from her spine to her scalp and said, “I remember I have no grievance with you, do I? What, Young Master Cui wants to kill me?”

“No, no, no.” Cui Daoyan interrupted, wagging his index finger in front of her eyes playfully. “You are still of great use to me. I won’t kill you so soon.”

Lu Ting’an couldn’t help but shiver. She forced herself to calm down and asked, “…What do you mean?”

Cui Daoyan tilted his head, giving her a mocking smile. “Miss Lu, considering that back at Shiya Yeyue, you didn’t look down on me because of my background, I will tell you.”

He paused, a cold light flashing in his eyes, his tone suddenly turning icy: “I have already united forty-four old departments of the demon race. While that waste Cui Daorong came to attend the Grand Hero Assembly, we worked from the inside and out to completely take control of Shiya Yeyue. Next, you group of sons and daughters of various sect leaders will be the best bargaining chips in my hand. If they refuse to submit to me, I will skin and de-bone you right in front of them to avenge the blood feud of my demon race.”

Lu Ting’an sighed, saying “it’s over” in her heart. From the moment she saw Cui Daoyan appear, she had vaguely guessed what he wanted to do, but such wolfish ambition still exceeded her expectations. She swallowed hard and tried to reason with him. “Young Master Cui, your background is indeed sympathetic, but who said there is a blood feud between the immortal sects and the demon race? Didn’t Sect Leader Song spend a fortune to build the Golden Terrace, just so he could let…”

“Don’t mention that old geezer to me!” Cui Daoyan roared fiercely, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the wheelchair armrest. “A bunch of hypocritical ‘gentlemen’! Why don’t you go ask how Song Yanwu’s cultivation improved so rapidly in just a few years? And how did his sickly, weak son become as lively as he is now?”

Lu Ting’an was stunned. “Are you saying…”

Cui Daoyan sneered, looking at her meaningfully. “You and I both know very well what kind of effects a Demon Core has, don’t we?”

Lu Ting’an felt her throat tighten, unable to speak for a moment. She could hardly believe that Song Yanwu had put so much effort into building the Golden Terrace and sending demon disciples to various immortal sects for so-called “cultivation” just to make it easier to kill demons and take their cores to boost his cultivation later.

Seeing the various expressions on her face, Cui Daoyan showed a look of disdain. “Don’t you know? I don’t believe it. That old thief Lu Qingchen hasn’t taken fewer Demon Cores from Song Yanwu over the years. As his only daughter, do you dare say you’ve never used one?”

Lu Ting’an nodded with an apologetic face, her tone very sincere: “Truly, I haven’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have failed to form a Core (Jindan) even now.”

Hearing this, Cui Daoyan’s paranoid and angry face distorted for a moment.

“You haven’t… formed a Core yet?”

Lu Ting’an: “…Mm.”

Perhaps having rarely seen such a useless person, Cui Daoyan gave her a surprised look. “Your talent is truly shockingly poor. For anyone else at your age, if not at the Nascent Soul stage, they should at least be a cultivator at the late Gold Core stage.”

Lu Ting’an laughed awkwardly twice. “How shameful.”

Cui Daoyan was silent for two seconds, his face gradually darkening. He said coldly, “Even so, you must pay for your father’s debts. Today, I will start with you. I’ll cut off one ear and send it to Baiyun Luyingmen as a warning.”

“Huh?!” Lu Ting’an broke down on the spot, shouting out loud, “No! Why don’t you start with those who actually used the Demon Cores? This is too unfair!”

Cui Daoyan gave her an annoyed glance and snorted, “Noisy. Let her down; I’ll do it myself.”

The black-clad men immediately stepped forward and pressed Lu Ting’an down in front of Cui Daoyan. Out of survival instinct, she struggled like a fish out of water. Cui Daoyan’s body was weak, and she actually managed to break free from his grasp several times. He became exasperated and slapped her hard, threatening, “If you don’t behave, I won’t cut your ear—I’ll cut your tongue instead!”

Hearing this, Lu Ting’an was startled and struggled even more frantically.

Cui Daoyan roared, suddenly reaching out to grab her jaw. The dagger, flashing with a chilling cold light, was about to probe into her mouth.

“No!”

Lu Ting’an screamed in despair, closing her eyes tight.

Shua—

The sound of a sword cutting through the air was heard. A flash of cold light arrived first, striking the dagger head-on. With a crisp “clink,” the dagger was knocked out of his hand. Cui Daoyan let out a muffled groan, his whole body jolting violently. Two of his fingers were sliced clean off. In intense pain, he couldn’t help but let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Only then did Lu Ting’an dare to slowly open her eyes. She saw Lin Zheng standing atop the mountain wall, her robes fluttering fiercely in the cold wind. Her face was like frost, and she was surrounded by an overflowing aura of killing intent.