After Transmigrating into a Book as Cannon Fodder, I Pampered the Villain - Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Intermingling

Let Yu Yingxia’s soul be thoroughly stained with her aura.

Yan Huaixi found staying cooped up in the valley rather dull. Fortuitously, several secret realms were opening in the Southern Territory during this period. Some lower-level ones were perfect for Yu Yingxia to practice her skills.

However, because Yan’s internal injuries hadn’t fully healed, Yu Yingxia insisted on keeping her “grounded” in Xianlu Valley. Perhaps because this behavior won the approval of the various hall masters, Yu Yingxia noticed that when she met Teng Yuelan for the second time, the woman’s expression was significantly softer lacking the initial aggression and disgust.

Still, for some reason, Yu Yingxia felt she could detect a trace of pity in the other woman’s eyes.

Every time they made eye contact, Yu Yingxia couldn’t help but rub her arms. Teng Yuelan’s gaze made her feel like a poor little lab rat that wasn’t expected to live much longer.

After much deliberation, Yu Yingxia formed a theory: she suspected Yan Huaixi’s confidants knew exactly what “purpose” Yan was keeping her for, which triggered that sympathetic response.

Ah well, Yu Yingxia comforted herself, at least I don’t have to worry about Yan Huaixi’s people assassinating me in my sleep anymore.

During Yan’s recovery, Yu Yingxia threw herself into cultivation. Recent events had taught her that surviving this world was no easy feat. Even if she quelled Yan Huaixi’s killing intent, a thousand other accidents could claim her life. She couldn’t always count on someone to save her; she needed the strength to protect herself.

Once she entered closed-door cultivation, Yan Huaixi found her surroundings suddenly quiet again. Her already bland days became even more tedious.

Her only daily amusement now was waiting for news from the Northern Territory tracking how chaotic the Tianqiu Sect had become and whether that old bastard Yin Duo was scurrying like an ant on a hot pan, trying to scrub away evidence while hiding from the Sect Leader’s scrutiny.

Another pleasure was waiting for her scouts in Sanxi City to send back Yang Xunzhou’s new book. She was still waiting for that revised ending.

Yang Xunzhou hadn’t moved, which saved Yan the trouble of hunting her down. The letter Yan had left specifically mentioned finishing the new ending quickly—otherwise, no matter where Yang fled, Yan would find her.

Upon seeing that letter, Yang Xunzhou felt a life-threatening chill. She dared not delay, setting aside her unfinished works to focus entirely on changing the ending for the “Living Yama,” terrified the demon would lose patience and come looking for her in person.

“Master,” Teng Yuelan entered the courtyard with a map. “Here are the locations and times for all major secret realm openings in the Southern Territory over the next ten years.”

Yan Huaixi was reclining on a chaise lounge, sunbathing while reading, much like she had in their little courtyard in Sanxi City. Her spiritual and soul powers were autonomously repairing her body. Over the years, she had grown to dislike medicinal treatment unless absolutely necessary, and because of the influence of the second-generation Longevity Gate Master’s drugs on her body, she had developed an incredibly powerful self-healing capacity.

Even so, because of Yu Yingxia’s “sweet talk,” the medicine-hating Yan Huaixi was actually cooperating with a drug regimen. This made her recovery much faster. For this, Teng Yuelan was grateful to Yu Yingxia. Even if she eventually betrays the Master, I’ll plead for her to have a quick, painless death, Teng thought.

After interrogating Jiang Li, Teng Yuelan had received a mix of true and false information. For instance: that “this” Yu Yingxia wasn’t the “original” one, and that the Master was using this girl as bait to draw out an old family enemy. Therefore, all current displays of affection were merely tactics to make the girl obedient.

Teng Yuelan stood firmly by Yan Huaixi, yet she still found Yu Yingxia a bit pitiable.

Yan Huaixi closed her book and took the map. Teng Yuelan sighed, but before the book was fully shut, she caught a glimpse of the contents.

Teng’s eyes twitched. She suddenly felt Yu Yingxia wasn’t so pitiable after all! Her Master never had the habit of reading such books before! She must have been corrupted by Yu Yingxia!

Inside her cultivation chamber, Yu Yingxia’s soul felt a tickle in its nose. As her spiritual and soul energies merged, she let out a sneeze, snapping back to partial consciousness and vaguely sensing the movement outside.

Teng Yuelan shot a disgruntled look toward Yu Yingxia’s room before turning back to Yan. “Master, you should listen to Miss Yu on this matter. Wait until your body is fully recovered before going out. Your enemies are watching; caution is paramount.”

“I know, don’t nag,” Yan Huaixi waved her off. “I plan to take her to a secret realm for experience once she breaks through to the Refining Essence into Qi realm. Her talent in the Soul Dao is excellent; she should reach it in about three years. By then, my injuries will be long gone.”

“As long as you care for your health,” Teng Yuelan said, relieved.

Yan Huaixi scanned the map. The details were clear. She picked and chose until she had a plan. Teng Yuelan watched her, her doubts deepening. Jiang Li said the Master is just using her, but if it’s pure manipulation, why be so meticulous?

Moreover, she knew the Master. Even if it meant total destruction, Yan wouldn’t force herself to touch something “filthy.” Yet the intimacy between the two had reached the point of direct physical contact. This didn’t align with Jiang Li’s “bait” theory.

“This ‘Lost Realm of Wandering Souls’ used to be controlled by the Yan Clan of the Soul Dao,” Yan Huaixi said, her finger landing on a realm at the edge of the Southern Territory.

“Correct,” Teng Yuelan noted. “After the Yan family fell, it came under the control of three families. If you wish to take Miss Yu there, I can arrange to buy entry slots.”

“Buy two slots. The timing should work out. That realm contains many ancient Soul Cultivator treasures and heritages; it will benefit her cultivation immensely.”

Yan Huaixi looked at the map with nostalgia. She had been there once—sneaking in as a child. Despite being a genius, she was too young then, and her elders had forbidden it. But her younger self was headstrong; she stole a family treasure, disguised herself, and slipped in. She returned with a bounty, though she still got a thrashing from her mother. Thinking of those times, a rare, soft smile touched her lips.

“Did you think of something funny, Master?”

“Just reflecting on how things change.” This was once my home’s territory, and now I have to buy a ticket to enter, Yan thought with a touch of melancholy.

“If you wish, we can retake that realm for you,” Teng Yuelan offered. It wasn’t an empty boast; since cutting ties with the Longevity Gate, they had flourished in secret. Seizing a single territory would be easy.

“No, don’t stir up trouble right now. Deal with the current enemies first. We can’t give them an opening.”

“Understood. I will arrange the entry slots.”

“And keep an eye on these other realms too,” Yan added. She didn’t know exactly when Yu Yingxia would break through, so she wanted backups.

Teng Yuelan noted the locations. Aside from the Yan family realm, the others were for weaker cultivators. It was clear the Master had chosen them specifically for Yu Yingxia.

“Master, you are… very different regarding Miss Yu. Do you have other plans for the future?” Teng Yuelan probed cautiously.

“Other plans?” Yan didn’t quite catch her meaning.

“I know she is useful as a pawn, but… if you have other feelings for her, you should make arrangements early,” Teng advised. Meaning: If you don’t intend to treat her as just bait, don’t break her heart, or there will be trouble later.

Teng wouldn’t object if the Master truly loved her, but all threats behind the girl needed to be purged. Once the girl was a “tame rabbit without claws,” her origin wouldn’t matter.

“I know what I’m doing,” Yan Huaixi replied.

Teng Yuelan’s worry didn’t fully fade. In her eyes, Yan was a genius in strength and strategy, but in romance… the Master was a total novice. Can she really handle this? Teng’s intuition told her there was a problem between them. But they hadn’t been together long; perhaps time would fix it.

Teng Yuelan left to arrange the slots. Yan Huaixi tried to go back to her book, but Teng’s words kept echoing in her mind.

She wasn’t worried about what Teng had said. She had already changed her strategy, and Yu Yingxia trusted her completely. The girl would never know how Yan had initially planned to use her.

She was actually glad she hadn’t had time to do anything except for that “Sister” title she had insisted on. Yan regretted that now. If I hadn’t warned her off then, and just let her feelings develop, that rabbit would probably be clinging to me by now!

But there was no medicine for regret. She had to swallow the bitter fruit she had grown. Still, she thought, she doesn’t seem to have given up on those feelings. If I coax her and treat her well, I can win her back. She was confident; after all, the “rabbit” had “improper thoughts” about her first.

Yan Huaixi looked composed, conveniently forgetting how flustered she had been when Yu Yingxia took off her clothes.

As she counted the days, she figured Yu Yingxia, who hadn’t yet achieved “Inedia” (fasting), would be coming out of seclusion soon.

“Where should I take her for training first? The graveyard in the back hills?” Yan hesitated. There were many wandering souls there to practice sensing and control, and since Yu Yingxia was afraid of ghosts, others said she would cling to Yan for protection. But what if I scare her too much? What if she cries and I can’t comfort her?

As she was debating, a sudden spiritual energy riot erupted from Yu Yingxia’s room! It felt like a breakthrough gone wrong.

Yan Huaixi’s expression sharpened. She burst into the room to find the situation worse than expected: not just spiritual energy, but soul power was in a state of turbulence.

“Yingxia?” Yan rushed to her side, using her own energy to stabilize the girl while trying to connect with her consciousness to guide the power back to its path.

Then, she realized Yu Yingxia’s consciousness had vanished. No—Yan had been right there; the consciousness hadn’t left the body. For a Soul Cultivator, there was only one possibility: her consciousness was in her Soul Realm.

The Soul Realm is the most private part of a cultivator’s soul. Unless you are the most intimate of partners, you don’t enter another’s Soul Realm. It is filled with the essence of their soul. If another soul enters with even a hint of “other thoughts,” the two souls can become entangled, inadvertently leading to Soul Dual Cultivation.

Yan Huaixi shook the stray thoughts from her head. Now isn’t the time. She had saved Yu Yingxia in her soul realm before. One time makes a stranger, twice makes an acquaintance. She’d just fish her out.

She guided her divine soul into Yu Yingxia’s sea of consciousness and searched for the entrance to the Soul Realm. She found it quickly a glowing fissure.

Yu Yingxia was no longer a total novice; she knew instinctively how to protect her realm. Yan didn’t want to use brute force and risk injuring her, so she sent her voice through first.

“Yingxia? It’s me. Relax, I’ll take you out.”

The fissure widened. The resistance vanished. Yan breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t enter fully, but sent a thread of power in to retrieve her. Suddenly, a surge of power erupted from Yu Yingxia’s Soul Realm, pulling the caught-off-guard Yan Huaixi inside!

Yan could have broken free, but she feared hurting Yu Yingxia’s delicate soul. In that moment of hesitation, she was swallowed by the realm.

Instantly, Yan Huaixi felt her soul completely enveloped by Yu Yingxia’s aura. Soft, curious threads of power brushed against her entire being quite boldly!

Yan felt as though she was being “frivolous” with, but she figured she hadn’t taught Yu Yingxia about these private matters yet. I didn’t teach her, so I can’t blame her, Yan thought, making excuses while enduring the sensation of those energies caressing her soul.

She landed in the center of the realm. It was her first time seeing it so clearly. Because Yu Yingxia’s cultivation was low, the landscape was sparse just an endless grassland bathed in warm light.

The Soul Realm reflects one’s state of mind. This meant the rabbit was soft, open-minded, and warm as sunshine. Unlike Yan’s own realm a sea perpetually shrouded in storms where no sunlight reached. (Though lately, those storms had shown signs of subsiding).

Words can lie, expressions can be faked, but the Soul Realm is the truth.

Yan felt the soul power clinging to her, but there was no “rabbit” on the grass. Where is she? Did her consciousness dissipate?! It was rare, but not unheard of. Her elders used to scare her with such stories.

Her heart skipped a beat. She followed the threads of soul power clinging to her until she found a small, newly sprouted sapling.

Is this sapling her consciousness?

Yan knelt and touched a leaf. The sapling shivered, almost as if it were shy. She didn’t recognize the species, but remembering Yu Yingxia’s peach-blossom-scented soul, she wondered: Is this a peach tree?

At that thought, the sapling began to grow rapidly, fueled by the soul energy Yan was sharing. By the time Yan realized it, she couldn’t pull her power back. The fully grown peach tree had been thoroughly stained with her soul’s aura!

As the tree matured, the power of the entire Soul Realm surged from the early stage of Refining Self and Building the Foundation into the middle stage, with signs of pushing toward the late stage due to the fusion with Yan’s soul.

Yan’s fingers trembled. Her soul power had fused into Yu Yingxia’s realm. From this day forward, Yu Yingxia’s soul would forever carry her scent. There was no going back.

Yet, a secret joy bubbled up in Yan Huaixi’s heart. She didn’t reject me, did she?

The peach tree blossomed, pink flowers exhaling specks of spiritual light. These lights converged in front of Yan, forming a human shape.

Yu Yingxia tumbled into Yan Huaixi’s arms, her face contorted in discomfort, her consciousness hazy. Her soul looked much like her physical body. Yan stroked her face tenderly. Allowing another’s soul power to fuse into one’s own inevitably causes a rejection reaction, and given the massive power gap, Yu Yingxia was suffering.

“Yingxia, bear with it. It will be over soon.” Yan used her power to soothe her. There was another way to ease the rejection… but that would involve true Soul Dual Cultivation.

But a person with a clouded consciousness is not rational. Yu Yingxia only knew she was in pain, and there was a source of power nearby that could ease it. Ignoring everything else, she sought to entwine herself deeper.

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