After Transmigrating into a Book as Cannon Fodder, I Pampered the Villain - Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Fear

As it turned out, Yu Yingxia knew that Yan Huaixi had wanted to kill her that night.

In truth, Yan Huaixi had not been entirely oblivious to the hidden dread Yu Yingxia harbored. When they first began interacting, Yan Huaixi hadn’t managed her temper well, so she was certain Yu Yingxia had been frightened by her to some degree.

Later, the girl had remained very stiff, and her manner was unnatural even when changing how she addressed Yan Huaixi. However, as things gradually improved, Yan Huaixi assumed that whatever shadows remained in her heart would not cause much of an issue under her own soothing care.

Yet now, realizing that Yu Yingxia’s fear of her was even greater than her fear of ghosts, Yan Huaixi understood that the situation was perhaps more severe than she had imagined.

“Yingxia.”

Hearing her name, Yu Yingxia instinctively looked toward Yan Huaixi, and her consciousness fell into a momentary blur.

To Yu Yingxia, it felt like an instant, but for Yan Huaixi, it was long enough to extract the answer she sought.

Yan Huaixi was the most formidable soul-cultivator in this world; bewitching the spirit and inducing interrogation were her most practiced methods. This was especially effective when the target placed a certain level of trust in her. Had it not been for the necessity of thoroughly understanding Yu Yingxia’s thoughts on this matter, Yan Huaixi would not have wanted to do this.

“Are you afraid of Yan Huaixi?” Yan Huaixi asked softly.

Yu Yingxia’s eyelashes fluttered. Her dull eyes suddenly rippled with a trace of emotion, and then she slowly nodded.

“Why are you afraid?” Yan Huaixi pulled her into her arms, using her most gentle voice to coax her to speak.

“I’m afraid… she will kill me.” After a long silence, the defenses in Yu Yingxia’s heart crumbled under Yan Huaixi’s voice, and she finally spoke her inner thoughts.

Yan Huaixi felt her breath hitch. She hadn’t expected to hear such an answer. After a long pause, she asked with a tight voice, “Why do you feel that way? As long as you don’t betray her, she won’t kill you.”

In fact, even if she truly discovered an act of betrayal from Yu Yingxia now, Yan Huaixi wasn’t sure she could actually follow through with it.

“But she would kill me just because of suspicion,” Yu Yingxia’s voice carried a sob. Even her dazed expression revealed the grievances she had felt during this time. “Just like that night.”

That night?

Yan Huaixi realized she had to get to the bottom of this. She immediately murmured an incantation to merge her consciousness into Yu Yingxia’s mind, wanting to see exactly what she was remembering.

Then, she heard the sound of torrential rain. She felt the scent of blood, moisture, and earth fill her nostrils. Raindrops pounded heavily against the body, and the abnormal pain in the heart indicated that this body had reached its limit.

Fatigue, fear, and a sliver of hope for survival—Yu Yingxia desperately wanted to grasp onto something. In her blurred vision, Yan Huaixi saw a flash of red hemline.

She knew it all too well; those were her own clothes.

Yan Huaixi could clearly feel a surge of worry and joy within Yu Yingxia’s soul. The girl had been sincerely worried that Yan Huaixi might have encountered danger, relieved that she hadn’t fallen for a trap and had arrived in time.

But seeing this scene did not make Yan Huaixi feel relieved; instead, the tightening sensation in her heart became more pronounced because she knew what would happen next.

Her arrival, rather than being a rescue, was more of an interrogation.

When Yu Yingxia reached out her hand full of hope, what she received in return was a bone-chilling intent to kill!

A sense of helplessness rose in Yan Huaixi’s heart. She hadn’t realized that Yu Yingxia had remained conscious enough to remember that event. The girl knew she had nearly killed her; no wonder every time Yan Huaixi grew angry, Yu Yingxia would become exceptionally nervous.

Yan Huaixi knew this feeling. When she was young and powerless, her life had been held in the hands of others countless times. What was she thinking back then? She was thinking… that sooner or later, she would pay them back a hundredfold!

But Yu Yingxia’s personality was much softer than her own. She detected no hatred in the girl’s soul—only increasing fear, confusion, and disappointment…

She finally understood the sense of distance she had felt from Yu Yingxia. Yet, she didn’t know how to explain it, because on that rainy night, she truly had acted against her out of suspicion.

Her paranoia was etched into her very bones. If asked whether she fully trusted Yu Yingxia, whose origins were unknown, Yan Huaixi knew the answer was “no.” Therefore, aside from that one incident where she had been blinded by rage, she had been carefully hiding her suspicion and hostility, hoping Yu Yingxia would let down her guard.

Alas…

Yan Huaixi hid her complex expression in her eyes. She reached up to wipe away the tears pooling at the corners of Yu Yingxia’s eyes from the memory of that night, then pulled her into a hug.

This person was timid to begin with; the impact of that night would not be easily erased. Unless…

Yan Huaixi gently stroked Yu Yingxia’s hair, as anxious and dark thoughts flashed through her mind.

Unless she directly erased that memory!

But… both erasing and sealing memories carried risks. Yan Huaixi bit her lip so hard she could almost taste blood.

Just then, she suddenly thought of the storybook Yang Xunzhou had written. She realized with a start that her current impulse mirrored a scene from the book.

In the story, her character repeatedly cleared Yu Yingxia’s memories of her misdeeds to maintain a facade of peace. Eventually, by chance, Yu Yingxia remembered everything. The accumulated weight of those memories led her to complete despair, and she vanished from the world, her fate unknown. Yan Huaixi’s hand trembled, and the flickering spiritual power was finally extinguished by her own hand.

Yang Xunzhou’s words seemed to hint at potential branches of fate, and Yan Huaixi was unwilling to become the person in that ending. She lowered her hand and gently patted the girl’s back, soothing Yu Yingxia as she drifted back into the nightmare of that night.

She knew the flaws in her character and could not argue against them. But her “rabbit” was soft-hearted; perhaps if she acted a bit pitiful, it might serve as a breakthrough.

Yu Yingxia felt a wave of dizziness, as if her blood sugar had dropped, and her head felt swollen and uncomfortable. A jumble of chaotic images flooded her mind, but before she could see them clearly, they vanished.

When she came to, she nearly fell. Fortunately, Yan Huaixi caught her and immediately carried her back into the valley.

There were outsiders in the valley. Yu Yingxia caught sight of their startled and suspicious looks from a distance. Her face burned with embarrassment, and she hurried to tell Yan Huaixi she could walk and didn’t need to be carried.

“You nearly fell just standing there; do you really think you can walk?”

Hearing the slightly amused voice of the person holding her, Yu Yingxia wished she could turn into an ostrich and bury her head in the sand.

“Maybe it’s low blood sugar?” Yu Yingxia murmured in confusion. This morning she had been in such a rush to find Yan Huaixi that she forgot to eat, but would her current body still have such problems?

“Low blood sugar?” It was the first time Yan Huaixi had heard the term.

“It’s a minor thing, just need some sugar.” Yu Yingxia wasn’t sure if it was blood sugar; perhaps she had just used her spiritual power too aggressively?

The “culprit” felt a bit guilty, so she immediately called Jiang Li over to check on Yu Yingxia.

Naturally, Jiang Li couldn’t find anything wrong. However, Yan Huaixi’s expression was rather intimidating, so she racked her brain to find a plausible explanation: “Did you use spiritual power on a large scale on the mountain? Your cultivation… it was already a bit unstable because you broke through too quickly.

You haven’t had time to consolidate it properly these past few days, and then the excessive use of power caused a disturbance in your internal energy. It’s nothing major; just take a Spirit-Stabilizing Pill and go consolidate your cultivation. Oh, and don’t forget to take a Fasting Pill, or next time you might actually faint from hunger.”

“You didn’t consolidate your cultivation before coming out?” Yan Huaixi frowned slightly, taking Yu Yingxia’s wrist. The spiritual power within her was indeed somewhat unstable.

“After you and her cough… Miss Yu came out that day, she’s been looking for you. From a timeline perspective, she shouldn’t have had a chance to consolidate.” Jiang Li wished she could bury her head under the table; she really did not want to bring up that particular incident.

Yan Huaixi’s expression immediately turned strange, her ears reddening slightly. She waved Jiang Li away. “You go on and get busy.”

“Yes!” Jiang Li immediately left the Spirit-Stabilizing Pill and fled Yan Huaixi’s room.

Yu Yingxia looked suspiciously at Jiang Li’s retreating back, then at Yan Huaixi’s odd expression. She felt like these two were hiding some secret from her.

“What are you dazing off for? Go consolidate your cultivation. If the foundation isn’t stable, it will affect how far you can go in the future.” Yan Huaixi reached out and tapped her forehead.

Yu Yingxia snapped back to her senses. By the time she looked at Yan Huaixi again, the other woman’s expression had returned to normal, as if what she had just seen was an illusion.

“Do I need to help you consolidate your cultivation too?” Yan Huaixi propped her chin on her hand, her smile teasing. Usually, children in ordinary sects didn’t need their elders to teach them hand-in-hand like this.

“No trouble, I can do it myself.” Yu Yingxia immediately waved her hands and returned to her room, still puzzled. She felt that Yan Huaixi had been strange all day first getting angry for no reason, and then her attitude becoming… clingy?

Yu Yingxia didn’t know if “clingy” was the right word, but the way Yan Huaixi looked at her was indeed like melting maltose.

Once Yu Yingxia was out of sight, the smile on Yan Huaixi’s face vanished, replaced by a sense of helpless sorrow.

She had thought their greatest obstacle would be the so-called sisterly relationship, but she hadn’t expected to add new difficulties to the pile.

Let Yingxia consolidate her cultivation first; that’s the most important thing. Then the other matters…

Before Yan Huaixi could plan her next move, she heard a pained cry from Yu Yingxia’s room.

“It hurts…”

Yan Huaixi immediately stood up and rushed to the room. The person inside had already begun meditating, but as soon as her spiritual and soul power completed one cycle, she ran into trouble.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Huaixi walked quickly to the bedside, concerned.

Yu Yingxia’s face was pale. After a moment, she condensed a ball of white soul light in her palm.

“There seems to be something extra in my soul.”

Originally, Yu Yingxia’s soul light was pure white, but now it was laced with several streaks of red.

Yu Yingxia was certain her soul light hadn’t had these red glows before.

“When I practice, I can’t control this red energy.” This red glow was very different from her original soul light; the energy was highly aggressive and would accidentally injure her if she wasn’t careful, forcing her to stop her cultivation.

Yan Huaixi, of course, knew what it was. It was the soul power she had “stolen” from Yan Huaixi by accident, and it had now merged further with Yu Yingxia’s soul.

But Yan Huaixi had forgotten the massive gap in their strength. Furthermore, Yu Yingxia’s power leaned toward gentleness, making it difficult for her to control such energy.

It’s my fault, Yan Huaixi thought with annoyance. No matter how angry she was, she shouldn’t have forgotten this. “I’ll teach you how to control them.”

She gently stroked the soul light in Yu Yingxia’s hand. The originally defiant red glow immediately settled down under the touch of her fingertips.

Consequently, Yan Huaixi did not step out of Yu Yingxia’s room for three days. Meanwhile, someone’s reputation in the valley suffered once more, heading off in an increasingly outrageous direction from which there was no return.

Yu Yingxia was unaware of the “storms” outside, but during these three days of cultivation, she discovered something: the light emitting the red glow was very similar to Yan Huaixi’s power.

Moreover, for some reason, strange images would vaguely surface in her mind while she practiced. She had no concrete memories, yet there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity. Especially when touching Yan Huaixi’s soul power, her own soul would tremble slightly—not out of fear or dread, but… a sort of tingling sensation that touched upon desire. She felt as though she had been entangled with this kind of energy before.

Was it a dream?

Yu Yingxia didn’t think such things could actually happen, so the only explanation was that it had occurred in a dream.

As for the nature of that “entanglement”…

Yu Yingxia pushed those suggestive images out of her mind. While it was fine for an adult to have the occasional erotic dream, if the subject was Yan Huaixi… she felt like a pervert lusting after someone close to her! How could she face Yan Huaixi in the future?

Not only was Yu Yingxia suffering from the stings of conscience, she was even more afraid that the person beside her would notice something. If that happened, her fate might be worse than being blown into fireworks.

In the intervals between cultivation sessions, she subconsciously avoided Yan Huaixi’s gaze, unaware that her behavior caused the person across from her to reveal a despondent look.

Ultimately, Yu Yingxia blamed those storybooks. It must be because she had illustrated too many “spicy” scenes recently that she was having these chaotic thoughts! Yu Yingxia decided to find a “Heart-Cleansing Sutra” to read and cultivate her moral character for a while.

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