Even If You're My Senior, It's Still Forbidden - Chapter 62

“Senior Sister, stay with me.”

“Alright.” Ji Weining didn’t say much, simply remaining by her side to keep her company.

As night fell, Su Tongjing and Su Nuo had already departed for the Demon Cave.

Ji Weining didn’t overthink it, but she wasn’t entirely certain they could handle the situation. Leaning to the side, she rested her hand on Su Jin’an’s waist and gently stroked her head.

The fine strands of her hair, much like her expression, seemed to convey her grievances and unwillingness. Ji Weining knew they were always hiding something. The Su family was enigmatic, and she had never interacted much with them.

Su Jin’an curled up against her chest like a small kitten. “Am I too selfish?”

With her head rubbing against Ji Weining’s chest, Ji Weining found herself at a loss for how to comfort her. This wasn’t the first time she had been like this.

“You’re fine, Junior Sister.”

All the words she wanted to say eventually condensed into:

“You’re fine, Junior Sister.”

“Fine.” Su Jin’an wilted at the response.

Her hand wandered mischievously around Ji Weining’s waist, then moved up to her hair, tangling her own locks with Ji Weining’s. Yet, she refused to lift her head from Ji Weining’s chest.

Ji Weining couldn’t see her face clearly but could feel her deliberately entwining their hair.

“Senior Sister said I’m fine.”

“Senior Sister, you must stay with me forever.”

“Never to part.”

Su Jin’an cast a spell, weaving their hair together and tying it with a ribbon.

“Alright.” Ji Weining caught her restless hand, causing Su Jin’an to squirm in her embrace.

Su Jin’an seemed to cling to her like a possession, even hooking her leg over Ji Weining’s. As Ji Weining held her hand, Su Jin’an transferred a stream of spiritual energy into her palm and discovered that Ji Weining’s spiritual power had diminished by half.

“Senior Sister, you’re lying.” Su Jin’an lifted her head and stared at Ji Weining.

Only then, in the dim twilight, did Ji Weining clearly see her face.

Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were soaked with tears.

Ji Weining hadn’t even noticed that her clothes were damp from Su Jin’an’s tears.

“Junior Sister, I…”

“Just go. You can’t truly let go.”

Ji Weining refuted her words. “I haven’t.”

“I’m just afraid you’ll regret it.”

She wasn’t wrong. After Su Tongjing and Su Nuo left, Ji Weining had indeed regretted it. She regretted not following them with her senior sister.

“Senior Sister, you can’t treat me like this.” Su Jin’an raised her eyes.

“What you care about most has never been me.”

“I do care!” Ji Weining sat up, inadvertently tugging at their tangled hair.

The tie wasn’t tight, and as it pulled taut, their hair loosened and fell apart.

“Go.”

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Ji Weining froze.

“Go find your other half.”

Su Jin’an curled into herself, as if relieved of a burden, and finally spoke those words.

Ji Weining clenched the bedsheet.

She knew something had happened to her other half.

“Junior Sister come with me.”

“Alright?” Ji Weining lowered her head, trying to look at her.

She gently stroked Su Jin’an’s head, hoping she would lift her gaze again.

But the person before her only buried herself deeper.

“Go.” Su Jin’an’s voice was strained, almost hoarse.

She took out the bell she had given her.

“Haohao, come back.”

She tossed the bell, and Ji Weining used magic to catch it.

Haohao? Come back?

What did she mean?

Ji Weining hadn’t yet processed it, but she knew the other body couldn’t hold on much longer.

The body dissipated before Su Jin’an’s eyes.

“Why did you follow us?” Su Yu and Su Tongjing, who had just stepped out moments ago, were surprised to see her arrive.

Ji Weining replied calmly, “A doppelgänger.”

Creating a doppelgänger right under Su Jin’an’s watchful eyes was no easy feat. The other doppelgänger was still accompanying Su Jin’an, and she could sense Su Jin’an’s unstable emotions. There was no way to reason with her now.

Su Yu couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you afraid Jin’an will be angry?”

“Have you ever seen her angry, Mother?”

Su Yu froze, and Su Tongjing was equally stunned.

Indeed, none of them had watched her grow up consistently, always preoccupied with their own affairs. They didn’t even know what she looked like when she was angry.

From the direction of the demon cave in the distance, demonic energy had already begun to leak. All three of them saw the rising demonic aura, which defied all logic and was even more severe. “Let’s hurry to the demon cave.”

The bamboo flute in Ji Weining’s hand fell and swiftly flew toward the demon cave. The barrier was beginning to crack, the layer of enchantment covering the demon cave was splitting open.

“Someone used a demon-summoning array outside.”

This caused the demonic energy inside to attack outward.

“The array is too old,” Ji Weining murmured.

As the person most familiar with this demonic energy, she knew exactly what it was capable of.

“Do you have a solution, Immortal Ji Weining?” Su Nu had already begun drawing an array, preparing to patch it up.

“It’s useless.” Ji Weining reached out and covered the array Su Nu was preparing.

The root cause was that the array suppressing the demonic energy had been overwhelmed by it. The demonic energy swirled like a vortex, drawing in scattered traces of demonic power from the surroundings and surging toward them.

“Leave first,” Ji Weining shouted.

Su Yu remained calm. “The Su family must contribute as well.”

She had anticipated this calamity. Yet, the divination results were uncertain.

She didn’t know whether to proceed or not. In the end, following her heart’s decision, she chose to come because the divination revealed Su Jin’an was here. She wanted to see her.

She wanted to see her.

As for the divine prophecy from before, she had never fully understood its truth, but she knew she had to protect her.

Some things remained unclear to her.

Su Yu activated the spiritual energy within and around her.

Ji Weining’s other body arrived as well, rushing forward and casting a spell to envelop the spiritual energy Su Yu had gathered.

Su Yu stared at her two bodies, speechless.

The other body then struck with a palm, using spiritual energy to push Su Yu’s body, sending her flying beyond the boundary.

Su Tongjing glanced at her, her eyes dark and unreadable, then voluntarily stepped beyond the boundary to support her mother.

Without a word, Ji Weining’s two bodies gradually merged into one.

Her spiritual energy returned, filling her body with vitality.

She softly chanted an incantation, “All laws enacted, demon-dispelling curse.”

Spiritual energy danced in her hands, transforming into arrays, one after another, forming seals.

“Expel!” The spiritual energy surged, finally pushing the demonic energy back.

The demonic aura seemed to trigger some kind of mechanism.

Ji Weining drew a knife from her sleeve and swiftly cut her palm. Blood flowed out and dripped down, while the bells on her garment fell and separated into multiple clusters, encircling her.

A series of ringing sounds, intertwined with spiritual energy and her blood, surged toward the demonic aura.

The demonic aura appeared to fear her blood and began to shrink back.

A mist-like haze descended around her.

She instantly lost consciousness.

[You should prepare to head to the next demon lair.]

The divine message echoed in her mind.

The next demon lair? Her thoughts were in chaos, and her body felt out of sorts multiple times.

As her vision cleared, she saw her master, Mu Chanjuan, push aside the curtain, holding an infant of unknown origin. Mu Chanjuan asked warmly, “Weining, do you plan to go out and wander around these days? Considering the instability outside lately, it might be better to stay on Qingheng Mountain.”

Ji Weining nodded. She still intended to venture out, but in response to Mu Chanjuan’s words, she simply continued with her own tasks drawing a new array.

“Actually, I wanted to ask for your help,” Mu Chanjuan coughed twice when she received no reaction.

Help? What could Mu Chanjuan possibly need her help with?

“This child has been frail since birth.”

Ji Weining glanced at the infant in her arms. Its complexion was starkly different from the rosy hue of other babies pale and sickly. It was a wonder Mu Chanjuan had managed to raise it this long. She asked, “What’s its name? Whose child is it?”

“It’s mine, so it will take the surname of the sect leader, Liu.” Watching as the spiritual energy originally infused into the child slipped away from its fingertips, Mu Chanjuan added, “Xiling.”

The name sounded freshly given. Ji Weining’s expression grew even more pitying as she looked at the child. She had always known her master was unreliable or rather, few in her sect were dependable.

Mu Chanjuan gave Ji Weining no chance to refuse and stated directly, “I need to go into seclusion for a few days. Could you take care of this child for me?”

“Why not trouble the sect leader?” Since she said the child would take the sect leader’s surname, it must be related to her, right? Why trouble me instead of her?

“She’s so frail, I doubt anyone would want her.” Mu Chanjuan pinched the child’s cheek, her expression serene like a mother gazing lovingly at her child. The infant laughed in her arms, utterly adorable.

“I don’t know how to look after a child,” Ji Weining reminded her.

She had never taken care of a child before, and now she was being asked to do so?

Mu Chanjuan brought the child closer. “She’s very well-behaved.”

“I can’t,” Ji Weining pushed the child back.

Mu Chanjuan’s eyes hardened with resolve, as if she had made up her mind. “Then I’ll abandon her.”

Abandon her? Ji Weining didn’t believe Mu Chanjuan would actually go through with it. Frowning slightly, she tested, “Fine.”

Exposed, Mu Chanjuan could only helplessly take Ji Weining’s hand and have her hold the child. The infant remained quiet and calm in her arms, neither crying nor fussing. Mu Chanjuan coaxed, “Since you’re not cultivating anyway and have nothing to do, why not take care of this child?”

Though Ji Weining refused, she still ended up accepting the child.

In the end, Mu Chanjuan seemed to have given up completely, like a broken jar shattered beyond repair. “I’ll be out in a month. If you really can’t handle it, take her to Liu Hongyu.” She didn’t mention abandoning the child again and instead pulled out a Qiankun pouch from her sleeve. “These are spirit pearls. Her body needs spiritual energy to nourish it, and there are also her belongings inside.”

“Mm.”

Only after Mu Chanjuan had left did Ji Weining begin to cast spells, examining the child’s body.

As expected, the child’s constitution was weak, her life force faint. Mu Chanjuan must have poured countless rare treasures into her just to keep her alive.

“This little one really isn’t easy to raise,” Ji Weining sighed, taking out the items from the Qiankun pouch.

Liu Xiling had already woken up and, likely not seeing Mu Chanjuan, began to cry loudly. Judging by her appearance, the child was over eight months old probably born during Mu Chanjuan’s last outing.

Who was the child’s father?

She said it was Liu Hongyu’s? A thought crossed her mind, but she couldn’t be sure. She recalled the medicinal herbs and rare treasures she had seen when she infiltrated Mu Chanjuan’s room.

Perhaps it really could be Liu Hongyu’s, or perhaps it was her own. After all, Ji Weining had only begun studying medicine after arriving here. Originally, she was the Heavenly Dao, responsible for governing this realm. She must have slept for a long time, only to wake and find that the demonic energy here had already begun to spread. She had calculated that by dispersing her mortal form and using it to suppress the demonic energy, she could prevent it from spreading further.

The mortals and cultivators here all feared demonic energy. Though they had developed many artifacts immune to it and arrays to exorcise demons, they still lived in fear.

Ji Weining looked at the child in her hands. There were traces of demonic energy hidden deep within her body, so concealed that no one but Ji Weining would have detected it.

She remembered the herbs she had seen in Mu Chanjuan’s room.

She had interacted with Mu Chanjuan before her body was fundamentally incapable of conceiving, meaning she should not have been able to bear a child. Her body was filled with complex spiritual energies, remnants of the many injuries she had suffered.

“Poor little thing.”

After pondering for a long time, Ji Weining slit her own hand, letting her blood drip onto the infant’s lips. Drop by drop, Liu Xiling absorbed it. The demonic energy within her began to dissipate, and with a wave of her hand, Ji Weining drew it into her sleeve.

“Liu Xiling.”

She teased the child, still finding her noisy but feeling more pity than annoyance. Of course, that pity vanished entirely when the child woke her in the middle of the night.

The next day, fueled by resentment, she took the child to Liu Hongyu.

“Whose child is this?” Liu Hongyu seemed unaware of the situation.

After a moment’s thought, Ji Weining told her the name Mu Chanjuan had given the child: “Liu Xiling.”

“Yours.”

“Mine?” Liu Hongyu froze instantly. She had never had a child.

“Mu Chanjuan said so.” Whether it truly had anything to do with Liu Hongyu was still questionable. Ji Weining didn’t know the effects of the concoctions Mu Chanjuan had created, nor had she ever seen her pregnant. It was entirely different from the methods she had witnessed in ancient times.

“I’m leaving.”

She couldn’t stand looking after the child any longer. Having been kept awake all night, Ji Weining had reached her limit.

“Ah? Okay?” Liu Hongyu stood there dazed, finally taking the child into her arms before chasing after Ji Weining to ask, “What about Chanjuan?”

“In seclusion.” Ji Weining replied curtly, then turned and quickly left. “I’m off.”

[To the next demon lair.]

“Mhm.” She responded to the voice, taking out the prepared veil and tying it on, once again covering her face.

Walking past the demonic lair, the surroundings were desolate everywhere, with several scattered bones. A young girl in tattered clothes was crawling on the ground, her hair barely maintaining a simple style. From afar, Ji Weining saw her lips were deathly pale, and her mouth formed the words: “Save me.”

The girl had no spiritual energy at all; instead, she was surrounded by demonic aura. There was no saving her, right? After all, Ji Weining had never seen anyone with such deep demonic energy who could still retain their consciousness. That’s right she was human, not a cultivator, nor an ordinary mortal, but the only one among all people.

Ji Weining still pulled her up.

“Immortal Master, you’re not afraid of demonic energy?” Su Jin’an asked, using her strength to sit up. The demonic energy seemed to have no effect on her at all, and *earlier, she had been pretending lying on the ground, acting like someone harmed by demonic energy.

So, she was a demonic cultivator.

But she was completely different from other demonic cultivators. Her body was not controlled by the demonic energy; she was even an independent individual.

For some unknown reason, Ji Weining asked, “Do you want to get rid of the demonic energy?”

Otherwise, why would she pretend to be an ordinary mortal harmed by demonic energy here?

She pursed her lips as if pondering the question, then smiled and said to her, “Yes, of course, I do.”

Ji Weining had her own thoughts; she wanted to help this girl. “Then, miss, may I ask how I should address you?”

She replied, “Jin’an.”

“The ‘Jin’ from hibiscus flower and the ‘An’ from peace.”

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